MINISTER FOR Enterprise and Employment Mary Coughlan has told employers and unions that they may have to “park” some of their wish list for a new national agreement.
She told a plenary session of the talks on a new national pay deal yesterday that any agreement reached would involve a balancing act of the highest skill.
Ms Coughlan said that it would also require “a strong nerve”. The agenda facing the parties was very complex but she was confident that the social partnership process was capable of reaching acceptable compromises.
“Social Partnership may not be the only game in town but it is the game we know best: there is a shared understanding of the ground rules and it remains best placed to deliver for all participants,” she said.
Ms Coughlan said the key consideration in addressing the current economic challenges was maintaining and enhancing competitiveness. She said the competitiveness agenda had to go hand-in-hand with maintaining and enhancing standards in the workplace and employment rights – issues of great concern to unions.
She said the Government would continue to engage with the social partners to “perfect” the proposed new Employment Law Compliance Bill – about which concerns have been raised by employers.
Ms Coughlan also urged employers and unions to grasp the opportunity in the new EU directive on pay and conditions for agency workers to agree flexibilities at national or sectoral level.
She said the Government favoured an agreed rather than an imposed outcome to the dispute over collective bargaining rights in non-union companies.
At the talks yesterday Taoiseach Brian Cowen and Ms Coughlan gave an overview of the financial difficulties facing the exchequer, and indicated that action would be taken within days and weeks. They said that they would welcome the engagement of the social partners in dealing with the problems.
However, they made no reference to public sector pay, which employers have urged should be frozen.
In a response, the employers’ group Ibec stressed the importance of restoring competitiveness. It maintained that careful management of the public finances was needed and that difficult decisions were going to have to be taken. However, it urged that the roll-out of the State capital programme should continue, along with investment in skills.
The general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, David Begg, said it would not be able to sell or agree to anything which did not ensure that those best able to carry the burden of the current financial difficulties actually did so.
He said that in dealing with the financial difficulties there were many innovative solutions that could be explored “rather than dumping on the ordinary worker”.
He suggested that the hospital co-location initiative, which he said would cost €500-€600 million, could be abandoned, as could some tax shelters. “The concept of taxing capital gains as ordinary income would also commend itself in this situation,” he said.