Delegates at an International Labour Organization conference in Ireland discussed how the country’s social partnership system failed when the economic crisis hit. Leaders from trade unions, business organisations and the government agreed that the social partners’ reaction to the crisis had been too slow and that interaction with the government was weak. Unions and employers said it was time to re-establish a tripartite body to manage key industrial relations issues.
Ireland’s social partnership system failed when the economic crisis hit because it had an ‘incapacity to cope with economic shock’. That was the view of Brendan McGinty, Director of Industrial Relations and Human Resources with the Irish Business and Economic Confederation (IBEC).
At an International Labour Organization (ILO) conference in Dublin on 7 December last, he said that the social partnership’s reaction to the crisis was too slow and it simply ‘ran out of road’.
One reason put forward by McGinty for the social partnership’s failure at the onset of the crisis was the collapse of the national wage agreement system in 2009. This agreement had been in place in Ireland since the 1980s, revalidated by consecutive agreements. He said the pay element of partnership was ‘the glue’ that kept agreements together.
Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) General Secretary David Begg similarly acknowledged the failure of social partnership during the onset of the economic crisis. He said the response to the crisis was too slow and that interaction with the Irish Government was not strong enough. This became apparent, according to Mr Begg, when social partnership proposals in 2009 were ‘misrepresented’ and subsequently rejected at government level (IE0912019I).
Both social partners, IBEC and ICTU, said they would welcome the re-establishment of a tripartite body involving employers, unions, and the government. They said the body could provide a formal space for the management of key industrial relations issues.
McGinty referred to the now defunct National Implementation Body (NIB) as a model for a new body to be formed to help manage significant industrial relations problems. The NIB was an industrial relations advisory group that consulted with the government.
Begg outlined an important impetus to establish a tripartite body. He forecast a ‘wage explosion’ following the current recession, similar to the one that happened in Ireland in the 1960s. Begg said a tripartite body could help manage this potential wage pressure.
The General Secretary of the Irish Municipal, Public and Civil Trade Union (IMPACT), Shay Cody, reflected on the role once played by the former Employer-Labour Conference. A non-statutory body, the organisation facilitated industrial relations dispute resolution and preceded the era of formal social partnership in Ireland between 1987 and 2009.
Cody said the functioning of such a system now ‘could address workplace issues like the implementation of EU employment legislation, whistleblower protections, collective bargaining and pay’. Without such a forum in place, he said, discussions tended to be ‘conducted over the airwaves’.
Begg, McGinty and Cody said they had made requests to Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny for a tripartite body to be re-established during 2012. They had yet to receive a response.
Before the ILO conference, Prime Minister Kenny had acknowledged ‘the value of constructive dialogue’ and mentioned Ireland’s National Economic and Social Council (NESC) as a forum where solutions to problems could be addressed. He said such a forum would have to be an open and flexible process that would ‘facilitate, not constrain, change and reform’.
David Begg said there has been ‘deep resentment’ among trade unions for having been isolated from major discussions over the past few years. Responding to the suggestion that social partnership had undermined the democratic process of government he said such a notion was ‘nonsense’. Since the collapse of the formal social partnership system in 2009, there had been no increase in democracy, Begg added.
The Secretary General of the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, John Murphy, was more cautious about the impact of the social partnership. Talking about its contribution to the period of economic success in Ireland from the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s, he said its role had been ‘somewhat overstated’. Murphy was doubtful that if the process had continued throughout the economic crisis that it could have negotiated labour market adjustments. He said wage cutting was complex and less simple to adjust and readjust.
Despite being somewhat critical of the social partnership process, Murphy did nonetheless say that social dialogue had contributed to significant industrial relations achievements in 2012. He also highlighted the importance of the NESC. He added that the social dialogue model in Ireland evolves to fit the circumstances the country finds itself in.
Brian Sheehan, IRN Publishing