Breakthrough in workers’ rights talks

AFTER almost three months of deadlock over workers’ rights, social partnership talks will finally begin negotiating a central pay deal next week.

The breakthrough came on Wednesday as employers and unions agreed that enough progress on protecting job standards and conditions had now been made.

At the insistence of unions, the protection of migrant workers had to be satisfactorily addressed before talks on issues such as pay could begin. Although no binding agreement on workers’ rights is in place, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions decided enough progress had been made to allow talks to proceed onto other issues before a final deal is concluded.