THE GOVERNMENT wants to rein in high pay levels in all sectors of the economy, Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore has signalled.
In an address to the biennial delegate conference of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions in Killarney yesterday, Mr Gilmore said pay moderation was not something that applied only to people on low and moderate incomes.
He also said that while the joint labour committee system for determining pay and conditions for thousands of workers would be reformed under Government plans, it would not be abolished as sought by some employer groups.
Mr Gilmore said the Cabinet would decide on the reforms to the wage-setting mechanisms shortly and that people should not jump to conclusions at this point as to what the changes would entail.
It was also important, he said, that the Government engage in dialogue with unions and employers “on what it will take to achieve lasting economic recovery”.
“The Government will talk with unions and employers and we will work to have an understanding with both that will facilitate recovery.”
He said this process of engagement would, of necessity, include dialogue on the future conduct of industrial relations and on the issue of collective bargaining rights for unions in line with the commitment in the programme for government.
However, Mr Gilmore told reporters later that this engagement would not be social partnership in the traditional sense as it applied in Ireland up until its collapse at the end of 2009.
He said social partnership as we knew it “was a formula that operated at a particular time in our history”.
The Tánaiste said that while there had been a moderation of wage costs in the public and private sectors over the last three years this had been less evident “in the very high pay levels that prevailed during the boom, creating an ever-widening gap between those in the sheltered sectors of the economy, the banks, the professions and those in the lowest-paid, most vulnerable parts of the economy”.
He said the Government had taken a lead on the issue of senior level pay in the public service and in the semi-State sector and it would now be looking for the private and sheltered sectors to play their part also.
“The programme agreed with the troika [says] that there will be reforms in sheltered areas of the economy and in some of the professions and we will be proceeding with those reforms.
“The exact shape of those reforms and the shape of the changes in relation to payments has not yet been determined,” he said.
“But the Government is determined that everyone in society, no matter what areas, no matter what profession, they will have to make their contribution and shoulder the burden that has to be shouldered.
“Pay moderation is not something that applies just to people on low and moderate incomes,” he added.
Separately the High Court is expected to deliver a judgment today in a legal challenge brought by employers in the fast food area against the joint labour committee system in their sector.
The ruling could have implications for the Government’s reform plans for the wage-setting mechanisms.