Today's special delegate conference of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) now appears poised to accept Partnership 2000, after SIPTU members voted to endorse the new national agreement yesterday. The likely turn of events will be greeted with enthusiasm, and no little relief, by the Government. All the signs suggest that another piece of the election jigsaw will fall into place at today's ICTU meeting the Government will be able to give the lie to the notion that only a Fianna Fail government can deliver a new pay deal. It will now face the electorate with a new national pay agreement safely in place.
The irony is that the Government hardly distinguished itself during the negotiating process. Agreements on public service restructuring were strung out unnecessarily, there was a lack of coherence in its approach to various productivity deals and the eleventh hour decision to create 3,000 new promotional posts for primary teachers - in order to lock up the INTO's support for Partnership 2000 - had the familiar contours of the political stroke.
In its defence, the Government will no doubt argue that there is a need to look at the bigger picture; that the more "flexible" approach was needed to ensure acceptance of a very worthwhile deal. Certainly, the benefits of the new deal should not be understated. The agreement on Partnership 2000 means that the kind of social and economic solidarity which has been one of the linchpins of our recent economic growth - is maintained. The alternative - a return to free collective bargaining with what the Taoiseach, Mr Bruton, has termed "leapfrogging claims" as various groups of workers press competing demands - is almost unthinkable.
In some respects, the terms of the new Partnership are something less than ideal. The proposed 9.25 per cent increase for the public sector, coupled with the outstanding claims from the Programme for Competitiveness and Work (PCW), could translate into an increase of over 18 per cent at a time when workers in competing economies are gaining much less generous pay awards. But it is also the case that the kind of pay increases envisaged for most workers over the next 39 months hardly seem over generous at a time when the economy is booming and expectations are high.
It is also the case that the low paid, especially in the private sector, have not gained appreciably from the deal. And some of the realities of modern industrial relations - casualisation, contract working and the requirement to work long, unsocial hours - are scarcely addressed in the new agreement. The commitment to a £525 million package to promote social inclusion is a welcome nod in the direction of greater equality, but there is also the sense that those with the strongest political muscle gained the most from Partnership 2000 hardly the best testimony to Jim Larkin on the 50th anniversary of his death.
The Government, meanwhile, has much unfinished business on the industrial relations front with unrest in CIE, Aer Lingus and, most notably, among nurses. Remarkably, the Government appears content to sit on its hands with regard to the nursing dispute, instead of being pro active in helping to find a solution. A more determined approach by all the social partners - whose collective solidarity is spelt out so clearly in Partnership 2009 is urgently required.