Ictu head attacks business campaigns based on 'rhetoric and anecdotes'

Ictu general secretary Owen Reidy was commenting on campaigns by business groups that claim wage costs are driving firms to the wall and killing jobs

Owen Reidy, general secretary at Ictu: Jobs market debate should be 'based on facts, not fiction'

Campaigns by business groups that claim wage costs are driving firms to the wall and killing jobs are based on "rhetoric and anecdotes" and not on hard facts, the head of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, or Ictu, has said. 

Ictu general secretary Owen Reidy said that some businesses were looking for "unique and additional supports" received from the Government during the pandemic and inflation crises to be put into place on a permanent basis, even as employment numbers reach new record levels. 

"If we are to have a real debate about the state of our economy and the world of work in Ireland, where it has come from and perhaps where it is going, we need to have both sides of the labour market, the voice of business but also the voice of workers, ie the trade union movement engaged in such a debate," Mr Reidy said in a report. 

"We need this discussion to be balanced and accurate based on facts, not fiction," he said. 

It comes as the head of business group Ibec Danny McCoy launched a campaign in January saying Government policies would add €4bn to the annual wage costs of Irish employers. 

More recently, an alliance of business groups under the SaveJobs Campaign name has said the likely election of Simon Harris as taoiseach and the looming local, European, and likely general election this year, would be the focus of its campaign. SaveJobs includes Isme, as well as pubs group Vintners' Federation Ireland, the Restaurants Association of Ireland, Nursing Homes Ireland, retail groups Retail Excellence and RGDATA, two hairdresser business groups, the convenience stores and newsagents group, as well as craft butchers.

However, Mr Reidy said that Government employment policies had been long flagged in the coalition's Programme for Government and would not be "coming all at once, without prior knowledge or consultation". 

"In the last number of months, we have heard a lot of rhetoric and anecdotes about the rising costs of doing business in Ireland today," he said.