PUBLIC sector unions will not escalate their campaign of industrial action during a negotiation process with Government officials over wages and working conditions which begins today.
Speaking on RTÉ Radio yesterday ICTU president Jack O’Connor said that the decision came despite union caution over Government intentions.
"We have to be conscious of the fact in the trade union movement that we called off action in March of last year and in December of last year and it lead to nothing," he said.
Mr O’Connor accepted that the Government’s pay- cutting agenda had not changed, but held out hope for the talks success because the negotiations were not taking place "in the kind of pressure cooker that exists a week before a budget".
He added: "Independent mediators will be able to record the position of the parties in the event of a breakdown and it won’t be possible to camouflage a breakdown for reasons other than that which is at issue between the parties."
Representatives of heath sector workers and their state employers are expected to meet at the Labour Relations Commission (LRC) this afternoon.
The meeting will mark the start of five days of talks which are expected to see separate meetings between employee representatives and employers in the five main public service sectors including health, education, local government and the civil service.
At Friday’s preliminary meeting between the talks facilitators, LRC chief executive Kieran Mulvey and LRC director of conciliation Kevin Foley, met with union leaders and Government negotiators.
It was agreed the negotiations process should aim to be business-like, without the 11th-hour dramatics which came to characterise partnership negations.
A talks source said: "These talks are being dealt with as an industrial relations mater, as opposed to being politicised by having the negotiations taking place at Government Buildings.
"The climate of these talks will be in stark contrast to what had become the norm during the partnership era."
The new talks follow a meeting last Thursday night between Taoiseach Brian Cowen and senior officers of ICTU.
The unions are calling for a reversal of the December budget pay-cuts and earlier pension levies.
However, for higher-paid public servants an agreement to reverse the cuts could be staged over a time frame of several months and be linked to work practice reforms.
Yesterday IBEC director Brendan McGinty said he had hoped unions would call off their present work-to -rule campaign.
"Any meaningful talks should take place on the basis that all industrial action has ceased," he added.
On Friday ICTU general secretary David Begg said that failure to reach an agreement at the latest round of talks would be "catastrophic" for the country.
a d v e r t i s e m e n t
This appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Monday, March 15, 2010
