Union chiefs and employer leaders have held talks over the resurrection of the “social partnership” model of central bargaining, just as public service unions push for the relaunch of the discredited “benchmarking” of government sector pay.
Patricia King, general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, and Danny McCoy, head of the Ibec employers’ union, have held meetings to discuss growing industrial unrest. This weekend an Ibec spokesman confirmed that the pair had met two weeks ago, during the Luas strike, but would not disclose the topics discussed.
Social partnership collapsed in 2009 after the employers abandoned it in the middle of the economic and property downturn. It is understood that a first step towards a return to central bargaining could involve a relaunch of the Employer-Labour Conference, a form of social dialogue regarded as “social partnership lite”.
Separately, public service unions have convinced public reform minister Brendan Howlin to launch a review of wage setting across the entire public service. The move has echoes of the much criticised benchmarking process, which provided special pay rises of 9% for nearly 300,000 state employees in 2003.
The high-level contacts come as unions and bosses fear thousands more workers will make Luas-like claims for pay rises to meet the cost of higher rents, mortgage and childcare costs. A CSO report last week revealed that Ireland is the joint third most expensive country in the EU, with living costs higher here than in Germany, Britain, France and the Netherlands.
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Many employees have not had any pay increase for more than six years. The hourly costs of employing staff in Ireland is now less than the average in the EU-15 states.
The National Competitiveness Council fears that high wage hikes would damage competitiveness for exporters.
Rather than see strike threats, both unions and employers want to a return to large-scale, moderate pay deals similar to the 21 years of “social partnership”.
It is understood that private sector union chiefs told McCoy that their preference would be continue to bargain locally and launch individual wage claims rather than be limited by a national deal. A trend toward jobs growth, skills shortages and improved profits increase the likelihood that strike threats will persuade business chiefs to share profits with their employees.
Meanwhile, three main public services unions — Impact, PSEU and CPSU — are discussing a merger to strengthen their position when deals are done for public servants. Last year’s Lansdowne Road deal included a mechanism for special pay top-ups for nurses, gardai, teachers, doctors and administrators under the guise of “benchmarking” with the private sector.