SIPTU votes to enter national agreement talks

NEGOTIATIONS on a new national agreement have finally been given the go-ahead after three months of uncertainty as SIPTU yesterday formally agreed to participate.

Talks were jettisoned by SIPTU last November over demands that the Government address fears for jobs displacement and worker exploitation as highlighted by the Irish Ferries scandal.

The move sparked perhaps the most serious crisis that any of the six national partnership agreements has ever faced. It also threatened to ignite an industrial relations free-for-all after an unprecedented period of industrial peace.