Partnership Update
On April 17 last, several hundred delegates gathered in Dublin to decide whether Congress, as the representative body for Irish trade unions, should enter talks with government and employers. At the Special Delegate Conference (SDC), there was a proposal from the Executive Council that any new talks must address the following, key issues:
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.
The current partnership deal Towards 2016 was formally ratified by Congress, on September 5, 2006. While the deal had been concluded in June 2006, Congress affiliates spent the summer months balloting their membrs on its contents. It was finally ratified by a delegate vote of 242 in favour and 84 against.
Towards 2016 differed from its predecessors in one crucial respect: whereas previous deals generally ran over a timeframe of perhaps 2-3 years, Towards 2016 has a lifetime of 10 years, in relation to overarching social policy goals. However, that broad framework agreement is punctuated by regular progress reviews and more frequent pay deals. Thus, when the deal was concluded in June 2006, it was agreed that the pay element - which provided for an increase of 10 percent - would run for 27 months. That pay round has now runs its course.