Delegates from the Irish Congress of Trade Unions have voted overwhelmingly to enter forthcoming national pay talks.
Representatives from more than 50 affiliated unions met in Liberty Hall, Dublin this morning to discuss their strategy for the talks with employers and Government on pay and other issues.
The motion to enter the talks was passed by 350 votes to four but Ictu General Secretary David Begg dismissed calls for wage restraint and strongly criticised the salary increases enjoyed by private sector executives.
A spokesman for Congress said a vote in favour had been expected but the meeting discussed what strategy should be adopted. "Pay is certainly top of the agenda," he said.
"There was a lot of anger by people talking about huge pay increases at the top in the public and private sector against the backdrop of people like the OECD calling for wage restrain," he added.
The motion said the main priority was the "achievement of pay increases sufficient to insulate workers against increases in the cost of living and to ensure a fairer distribution of the profitability and productivity gains in the economy while being structured in a way that helps the lower paid and reduces the gender pay gap".
Other issues including pension rights, union recognition, public services infrastructure and the treatment of agency workers would also be central to the discussions.
Today's decision was welcomed by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, who called for a "realistic" approach to wage bargaining in the forthcoming talks.
Siptu general president Jack O’Connor told the meeting that unions must be prepared to “engage fully” with employers and the Government on pay increases in the context of the wider economic problems the country faces.
Howver, he criticised the “disingenuous campaign under way on inflation that is pitting jobs against wage costs”.
“There is no point in securing a wage increase if tens of thousands of our members never see it because they have been displaced by agency workers”, he said.
"The other key issues that had to be addressed as a matter of urgency were adequate resources to address our enormous skills deficit."
It is unclear when the talks will get under way but there is speculation they may not start until Taoiseach Bertie Ahern hands over power to Brian Cowen on May 6th.
Ictu’s economic advisor Paul Sweeney said last week there was “serious concern” at the latest inflation figures that show it rose to to 5 per cent in March, up from 4.8 per cent the previous month.
“Irish price levels are already 21 per cent above the EU15 average for consumer services and 14 per cent above it for consumer goods price levels,” Mr Sweeney said. “This will obviously have a serious impact on any new pay talks.”
The country’s largest trade union Siptu voted on Monday to enter into talks with the Government and other social partners on a new deal.
Ireland’s second largest trade union, Unite, has said it will be seeking increases "substantially above inflation" in the talks.
Unite regional secretary Jimmy Kelly said today: “It is right that we should enter the talks but nobody should be under any illusion about how difficult they will be.
"We represent members for whom wages are real. They know that Ireland is a tough place to make ends meet. Employers who salt away big profits and then plead inability to pay because of macro economic trends need to listen to the voice of the working people of Ireland. We will bring that voice to the table loud and clear.”
Employers' group Ibec said earlier this week that a pay deal which chased inflation would be bad for the country and put more jobs at risk at a time when the economy was facing its biggest challenge in 20 years.
Yesterday, the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) warned that wage restraint is required in the near term to improve Ireland’s competitiveness and to raise the economy's export performance.
"Unless wage and price inflation are reined in, the export sector will not be able to contribute either to short-term adjustment or the long-term improvement in living standards,” the OECD said in its latest economic survey of Ireland.
"Real wage growth needs to be limited to increase in line with productivity or even less in the short term.”
Full text of Ictu motion passed at today's meeting:
Whereas Congress is party to Towards 2016 and acknowledging receipt of an invitation from the Taoiseach to participate in negotiations for pay and conditions to cover the period beyond that stipulated in Section V and noting the growing share of wealth taken by profits, the increases in inflation and interest rates, the refusal of employers to operate the pensions provisions of the agreement in good faith, the efforts which have been made in the courts and otherwise by certain employers to unravel the industrial relations model which has regulated relations between unions and employers since 1946 and deploring the fact that despite being one of the richest countries in the OECD investment in public services as a percentage of gross domestic product is far below the average of the EU 15 and such services, in consequence, remain in a state of permanent crises to the great detriment of the whole population and especially its weakest members and asserting that the growing inequality in society which allows people at the upper end of the socio-economic spectrum to receive large increases in remuneration while middle income and lower income workers endure stagnant incomes is eroding social cohesion and in particular has rendered the Public Sector Benchmarking process irrelevant and observing that, while Congress remains committed to agreed changes in the public service which have direct beneficial effects on services, notes that affiliates have come to doubt the efficacy and appropriateness of present method for achieving such agreement in the context of National Pay Negotiations, therefore, resolves to participate in the said discussions on the basis of the following platform of priority objectives:
i. The achievement of pay increases sufficient to insulate workers against increases in the cost of living and to ensure a fairer distribution of the profitability and productivity gains in the economy while being structured in a way that helps the lower paid and reduces the gender pay gap;
ii. The institution of a comprehensive and enforceable pensions policy, in accordance with commitments outlined in the framework agreement, and involving a mandatory contributions regime to secure the livelihoods of workers in retirement;
iii. The further enhancement of the programme of legislation agreed in Towards 2016 to protect agency workers against exploitation by providing for equality of treatment with other workers in the same workplace;
iv. The creation of a legal framework which includes the right of workers to engage in collective bargaining with their employer through their trade union, which protects the Joint Labour Committee system against legal challenge and which ensures that the Competition Act is operated in a manner which respects these rights as fundamental for all workers;
v. Support for the social wage through ensuring an adequate level of investment in public services especially health and education and the caring infrastructure.
