The Labour Court and Labour Relations Commission have both expressed serious concern about pay trends and the way that unions are increasingly bypassing "the industrial relations structures of the State".
The LRC has also reported an increase of 32 per cent in referrals, mainly over pay, in the first six months of this year, compared with the same period in 1998. Concerns over symptoms of growing instability in Ireland's social partnership model are voiced in the annual reports of the two organisations for 1998. The reports were launched jointly by the Tanaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Ms Harney, at Government Buildings yesterday.
The Labour Court report for 1998 shows no significant difference in the number of cases dealt with. At 701, this was 2.3 per cent up on 1997, but 4.3 per cent below the overall average since 1993. However, the report says that "the increasing complexity of the cases has tended to outweigh any diminution in volume". The chairman, Mr Finbarr Flood, expresses concerns in the report about employers and trade unions using delaying tactics in disputes, such as being unavailable for talks or making late submissions to the court.
He also criticises "the emerging trend of balloting for strike action before a dispute has been through the full procedures". This, he says, has resulted in a strike date being given to a company before the Labour Court recommendation has been issued.
Mr Flood also complains of the lack of statutory powers available to the court to enforce awards. While it can make binding awards in some instances - such as sexual harassment cases - he says that the statutory limit of two years' salary is too low, particularly as the individuals concerned are often on low pay.
The LRC chief executive, Mr Kieran Mulvey, says in his report that the settlement rate of disputes by the commission remained almost as high in 1998 as in 1997 - at 82 per cent compared with 83 per cent.
This was in spite of the dramatic increase in caseloads as the LRC took responsibility for new legislation, such as the Parental Leave Act.
The report criticises "the over-rigid postures adopted by management and unions in a number of high-profile disputes" which, the report says, suggest that Ireland has not adjusted fully to the disciplines of the global economy. The "fallout from high-profile settlements with key groups like nurses and gardai" would, the report goes on, make public service reform more difficult.
Eleven years of "national economic and social partnership, including centralised pay arrangements, have delivered major returns to all areas of the Irish economy", the report says.
But it warns that "maintaining earnings over time can become progressively more difficult, particularly where they fail to reflect underlying market conditions." Any successor to Partnership 2000 would have to "improve the living standards of those at work without recourse to wage increases that would jeopardise competitiveness".
