Unions should not confuse partnership with collective bargaining, the director general of IBEC, Mr John Dunne, has warned senior trade unionists. He said that if unions tried to use discussions on partnership at local company level as a means of seeking traditional pay increases they would find themselves in "a head on collision" with employers.

Mr Dunne gave his warning at a special seminar organised by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions in Dublin yesterday to discuss guidelines for implementing local partnership deals. Fourteen of the country's largest unions sent senior officials to the conference to be briefed on how they should approach partnership negotiations.

Mr Dunne said he felt he had been invited "into the lion's den" but added that businesses were interested in partnership, "not because we're in a do-gooder mode or feel we are under a moral imperative to do something nice, but because it makes very good business sense".

National agreements and social partnership had helped put the economy "in tremendous shape". Ireland had thrived on competition, he said, but that competition was about to become tougher.

Partnership was the way forward, but both sides had to be clear about what it meant. "It cannot be seen as an alternative collective bargaining forum. If it is, it will be dead in the water.

"I have to say I am aware of a number of bona fide companies who have wanted to go down the partnership road and progress has been blocked because of confusion on this issue. I want to state that bluntly so that we know where we stand and don't end up in a head-on collision."

ICTU general secretary, Mr Peter Cassells, thanked Mr Dunne for his honesty and said that unions had to learn not to charge at every employer they dealt with, like Don Quixote attacking windmills. At the same time, managers also had to learn to change their approach if they wanted companies to survive.

Congress had made it clear that it wanted to co-operate with progressive companies, in part so that it would be able to turn both barrels on bad employers.

Commitment to partnership did not mean unions were becoming less militant, or that conflicts of interest would cease to exist. Partnership offered a better way of resolving problems.

"Ultimately mutual respect is necessary to achieve higher levels of trust. The corollary of that is that employers must be prepared to share power."

Unions had pioneered the partnership approach but it could only go forward now if employers embraced it, he concluded.

The president of congress, Mr Edmund Browne, said that partnership was still a very remote concept for many workers, especially those on low pay, those in boring dead-end jobs, or those in non-union firms where they were looked upon as trouble makers if they asked questions.

"We need to move to a position where partnership becomes part of the culture. To paraphrase modern management speak, `We talk the talk - now it is time to walk the walk'."