National wage talks - Private sector must be dealt with

Although SIPTU voted overwhelmingly yesterday to enter talks on a new national wage agreement, it did so with a caveat relating to employment standards, specifically job displacement and exploitation.

With the Irish Ferries and GAMA experiences to draw on, members will have to insist that these issues will be addressed by the Government as promised in a separate forum.

It is important that they will be, because Jack O’Connor, the union’s general president, warned that the union would “retain the capacity to march together”, if the talks did not deliver for workers.