Pay talks back on track as union boycott ends

THE NATIONAL pay talks are back on track after the country's largest trade union cancelled its seven-week boycott of Sustaining Progress and agreed to re-enter negotiations.

SIPTU raised question marks over the entire future of social partnership in March when it dramatically pulled out of the next phase of pay talks just as negotiations were about to start.

The largest crafts union, the TEEU, quickly followed suit, effectively crippling national negotiations aimed at agreeing national pay deals for the next 18 months. The TEEU has now also agreed to re-enter negotiations after continued informal contacts between the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) and the Taoiseach's Department led to Government assurances on job conditions being confirmed.