Time for reflection, not action

Siptu’s rejection of the LRC proposals on pay and reform can be a fresh start for all, says Colm Keaveney

PRESIDENT John F Kennedy once famously said: “The Chinese use two brush strokes to write the word ‘crisis’. One brush stroke stands for danger; the other for opportunity. In a crisis, be aware of the danger — but recognise the opportunity.”

This insight has since become an adage almost to the point of cliché. However, the essential wisdom of the point remains.

With the rejection by Siptu of Labour Relations Commission proposals for a revised agreement on pay and reform, we are now faced with such a crisis as JFK described, but it is essential that all involved keep their heads and recognise the opportunity it represents.

Any unilateral move by the Government to impose cuts on workers at this point will prove to be damaging to the Government, to the workers concerned, and to broader society. It would be both prudent and wise for senior ministers to refrain from hasty words or actions in the coming days. This is a time for reflection, not for legislation.

The situation before us remains as an ongoing industrial relations process between employees and their employer, the State. It is now incumbent on all sides to re-enter talks and to seek to resolve this by negotiation, but this time the public sector workers must be permitted to do so without threats of punitive action against their living standards hanging over them.

I appeal to all public representatives of the Labour Party to remember our political roots and to stand united with organised labour and with all working people. This is not merely an appeal for solidarity with those in the public sector but with the many workers in the private sector who have been left struggling to protect thewelfare of their families.

There were parts of the LRC proposals that sought to undermine the workers’ rights that have been hard won over the course of the last century. These included the right to fair compensation for working overtime and unsocial hours, including Sunday premiums. If these proposals had been passed, I have little doubt that many private sector employers, led by voices within Ibec, would have began seeking the same undermining of workers’ rights in their sectors. It would have been ironic if this had occurred in this the centenary of the Lockouts of 1913.

As of now, though, the Government is presented with an opportunity. It is now open to them not only to enter into renegotiations of these proposals but also to reflect on the current budgetary strategy. Only recently we have heard from some of the architects of austerity who are now doubtful of the wisdom of their former advice. They now recognise that austerity damages an economy. More importantly, it can and has resulted in damage to our society.

A key flaw in the now rejected proposals, and with the current budgetary strategy, was the absence of any clear, substantial stimulus plan for the domestic economy. While our export sector has held its own during the last number of years (although recent figures are not so positive) our domestic economy remains weak and is in urgent need of help. Creating employment must be our key priority, as nearly everything hinges on getting our people back into work.

Families and communities are being eroded by an austerity that seems without end and are in need of hope. Hope that their children will not have to emigrate. Hope that they will have the dignity of work. Hope that they will be able to provide for their families and to take an active part in wider society.

The issue of private debt needs to be addressed. Five years into the crisis, no satisfactory mechanism yet exists to resolve this issue. There are those who obsess with a near Victorian sensibility with their need to punish those who find themselves, despite their best efforts, unable to pay their debts. They fail to see that, by insisting the millstone of debt remain around people’s necks, they condemn the rest of society to bear the burden through the drag it causes on our domestic economy with the destruction of consumer spending power.

The question of taxation remains outstanding and can no longer be avoided. Those who can bear a greater burden, through their wealth and higher incomes, must now do so. The question of effective tax rates for individuals and companies must be looked at and tax loopholes and avoidance schemes closed off. This may result in the simplification of the tax code which would lessen the regulatory cost that businesses carry.

This crisis presents the Government, and the country, with both a danger and an opportunity. Vision and courage will be required to steer us through this, but the current course will not longer do. More than a mere tweaking of the tiller is needed.

* Colm Keaveney was elected to Galway East as a Labour Party TD but has lost the party whip in the Dáil. He is the chairman of the Labour Party and is a former Siptu official