THE Institute for Action and Research on Work and Employment (IARWE) is on schedule to meet its targets in a pioneer project to bring 1,000 unemployed people back into the workforce following the resolution of its recent dispute.
The two week strike at the institute was resolved without disrupting work on the 159 projects included in the institute's programme.its staff, is expected to be concluded shortly.
Mr John Mitchell, a former general secretary of the ESB Officials Association and IDATU, which is representing the institute in the talks with SIPTU, has described the situation as "very positive".
"It's disappointing that the achievements of the programme have been overshadowed by a relatively minor hiccup," he said in a reference to the dispute over the dismissal of a SIPTU member. It was eventually resolved with the member being reinstated and then resigning to work for other social action agencies.
Mr Mitchell described the settlement as "very imaginative. Any dispute where there are no losers is a good settlement".
The institute had criticised coverage of the dispute in The Irish Times. Mr Mitchell said he wanted to make it clear that the board of management had been committed to every effort to resolve the dispute in as amicable a fashion as possible. This would continue to be its approach in dealing with the union.
Meanwhile, the principles of the institute's programme, which is to provide socially useful work in the community for unemployed people, have been adopted in new projects being set up on Teeside in England and Antwerp in Belgium.