Partnership committees agreed in all government departments

The two-year period up until early 1999 has seen the rapid development of "partnership" activities in the Irish public sector, with all government departments establishing formal "partnership committees" comprising management and trade union nominees.

Over the course of 1998 and into 1999, "partnership" arrangements between management and unions in the Irish public sector have been developed to the extent that all government departments have now established formal management/trade union "partnership committees". The objective of the departmental partnership groups is to develop a more effective and cooperative approach to organisational change, so that the various government departments can provide better services to the public and a better working environment for employees and managers.

The National Centre for Partnership (NCP), with the assistance of the Irish Productivity Centre (IPC), has provided much of the impetus for these initiatives and its continuing training programme is being heavily utilised. The NCP - established in 1997 (IE9706202N) under Partnership 2000, Ireland's current three-year national pact agreed that year by the social partners - launched a new training manual entitled Working together: a training programme for partnership in the public sector on 9 December 1998.

Meanwhile, in the local government and health sectors, national framework agreements are now being finalised between employers and unions within which individual local authorities and health boards will establish formal partnership structures over the coming months.

Many semi-state bodies, such as Aer Rianta (airports), Telecom Eireann and ESB (electricity) have already developed their own approaches to partnership, while others such as RTE (broadcasting) and An Post (post office) (IE9805250N) are in the process of doing so with the assistance of the NCP. Any assessment of the quality of these developments will take time. In the case of ESB, for example, the current partnership process, in the form of the 1996-9 Cost and competitiveness review (CCR), has almost run its course. Whether it can be sustained or remodelled in a new deregulated electricity environment remains to be seen.

John O' Dowd, the joint director of the NCP, says that the demand for training has exceeded its expectations: "we now expect to provide between 50 and 100 training courses this year for up to 1,500 participants." Organisations that have already arranged training programmes include RTE, Kerry County Council, the Marine Institute, the Legal Aid Board and various government departments. In addition, the NCP has arranged five briefings for groups of 25 for organisations that would like to develop their own capability to provide the relevant training on an "in-house" basis.