The Tanaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Ms Harney, has expressed concern at the number of recent unofficial disputes and described the action at Iarnrod Eireann as particularly disturbing.
Ms Harney also criticised employers for failing to spend more on training, when employees were their most valuable resource. She said many employers were still not offering the type of "high-quality and progressive" reward schemes needed to retain and motivate staff.
Speaking at the joint publication of the 1999 annual reports of the Labour Court and the Labour Relations Commission (LRC) yesterday, the Tanaiste refused to be drawn on the issues in the rail dispute, but appealed to all parties "to bring it to an end".
"A good industrial relations environment is essential if we are to maintain our economic success. No one wants to see a return to the 1980s", the Tanaiste said.
Last year's figure of 215,587 production days lost was the highest since 1990. However, some 82 per cent of days lost were due to last October's nurses' strike, the largest dispute in the history of the State.
When this was taken into account the figures were in line with trends, the chief executive of the LRC, Mr Kieran Mulvey said, stressing that there was no need for alarm.
Mr Mulvey and the chairman of the court, Mr Finbarr Flood, said the future of the State's industrial relations was at a critical point. They appealed to unions and employers to show more co-operation and urgency in resolving problems under the new national agreement than they did under its predecessor.
Mr Flood called for a complete review of industrial relations machinery, "to assess whether it is appropriate for the challenges of the coming decade". He said referrals to the court in 1999 were at their highest in five years, and there was a continuing tendency for both sides in disputes to use the court "as a staging post" rather than a place of last resort to resolve their differences.
"Any undermining of the court will, in turn, undermine the industrial relations structures on which the economy relies so that disputes between employers and workers can be mediated and resolved, thereby avoiding industrial relations chaos," Mr Flood said.
We were, as a country, currently in a position of strength.
Our industrial relations performance "with some notable exceptions" had been outstanding. The economy's success was based in large part on "our ability to reach agreement by consensus, but frequently negotiations have been lengthy.
"The decade ahead is likely to see the pace of change accelerate and make flexibility and speed of response an essential requirement in business," he added.
Mr Mulvey said last year had seen an unwelcome recurrence of unofficial industrial action. These included three disputes at ESB power stations, action across the State by scaffolders and disruption of services by the Irish Locomotive Drivers' Association.
He expressed serious concern that the level of referrals to the court this year, at more than 1,100 to date, was on a par with last year and said the LRC's resources were "stretched to their absolute limit".
Ms Harney said that where resources were needed they would be found. She accepted that the LRC and the Labour Court provided "terrific value for money" to the taxpayer.