As the majority of unions vote on the national wage deal today, Mandate will go it alone, writes John Douglas
Today, hundreds of delegates representing the majority of Ireland's trade unions will troop through the doors of Jurys hotel in Ballsbridge to vote in favour of the new national agreement, Towards 2016.
Mandate, which represents over 40,000 workers primarily in the retail sector and the bar trade will not be amongst them.
Last October, we decided not to participate in a process to thrash out a successor agreement to Sustaining Progress. Why then did we choose to remain outside of the talks, while the vast majority of our colleagues in Ictu decided to proceed?
The answer for us is very simple. For our members, most of whom are employed in the booming retail and hospitality sectors, the restrictive agenda placed on wage increases which governed the conduct of the talks from the outset did not inspire any hope that this agreement would do any more than its predecessor deal did to address the ever-widening gap between those on higher incomes and those at the lower end of the scale.
Sadly, our predictions were proven to be right.
Our decision not to engage in talks on a new national agreement was not taken lightly. In fact, this decision can be traced back to Mandate's biennial conference in Co Clare in April, 2004.
This conference, the theme of which was "Partnership Under Scrutiny" marked the start of a process where we and our members reflected on the impact 20 years of social partnership has had on our economy and on our cohesion as a society.
While there is no doubt that various agreements have contributed in no small part to Ireland's economic success, the cosy consensus of social partnership which has emerged in recent years has done little to improve the lot of lower- and many middle-income earners.
Paltry partnership pay increases have been denuded by increases in new stealth taxes and dramatic rises in utility bills and education, health and transport costs.
In fact, continued interest rate increases such as the 0.25 per cent rise announced by the European Central Bank only weeks ago and the expected further rise later this year, coupled with increases in gas, electricity bills and rising inflation, will in effect mean that the miserly wage increases secured for the lower paid in the new national agreement have proved to be worthless even before the deal has been approved.
The sop of an extra 0.5 per cent pay increase negotiated at the 11th hour at the national agreement talks for those earning less than €10 an hour is, in Mandate's opinion, nothing more than a sick joke at the expense of the lower paid.
Quite frankly, this is an insult directed at the less well off by those whose brief it is to protect them.
The lower paid working in hugely profitable sectors such as retail needed realistic pay increases, and all they got was an empty gesture from Government Buildings.
Research carried out last year on behalf of the union by Farrell Grant Sparks Consulting shows that since 1998, the wages of full-time equivalent workers in the wholesale and retail sectors grew by 34.7 per cent, a full 10 per cent behind the average in the economy of 44.8 per cent.
The increase in retail and wholesale workers' incomes was the second-lowest in the economy and came behind other sectors such as construction, which experienced a 56.4 per cent increase in incomes, hospitality at 51.4 per cent and financial services at 40.8 per cent.
The fact that workers in the sector had fallen behind others was nothing to do with the performance of the retail and wholesale industries.
Profits in retail have increased dramatically. In the decade between 1995 and 2004, the incomes of retail workers increased by 126 per cent, while profits increased by 338 per cent.
Indeed, this industry is the one where the difference between growth in profits and in compensation of workers has been the greatest. Partnership agreements throughout this period have done little or nothing to close this gap.
Prices of many essential goods and services are increasing at very significant rates and are eroding our members' living standards. Towards 2016 has in effect turned a blind eye to this.
Mandate has decided to adopt a "go it alone" strategy. We have recently lodged pay claims with all major retailers in a bid to secure an extra €1 per hour on all existing hourly rates for approximately 25,000 workers across the country.
This strategy, progressed outside of the constraints of the national agreement, is being pursued vigorously by Mandate.
Those who the trade union movement purport to represent deserve no less.
• John Douglas is general secretary of Mandate