The impact of inflation on the pay increases under the current Towards 2016 national agreement will dominate the agenda at the biennial conference of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu) this week.
About 600 delegates from more than 50 affiliated unions will attend the conference in Bundoran, Co Donegal.
The implications for trade union representation rights of a recent Supreme Court ruling and the continuing problems in the health service will also feature strongly. The overall theme of the conference, which opens today and continues until Friday, is "equality for all".
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern will address the conference tomorrow in what he has already indicated will be a major speech.
On Thursday, delegates will debate the state of the health services, with speakers including Michael Scanlan, secretary-general of the Department of Health; Vincent Sheridan, chief executive of the VHI; Miriam Wiley, of the ESRI; and Dr Fergus O'Ferrall, of the Adelaide Hospital Society.
In his report to the conference, Ictu general secretary David Begg said that the period since the last biennial delegate meeting had been characterised by some very bitter industrial disputes, such as those at Irish Ferries and An Post, as well as by the refusal of a number of employers to use either the National Implementation Body or the Labour Court.
"This was particularly evident in strategic disputes such as those relating to pension schemes. This calls into question the viability of the voluntarist system of industrial relations . . . and suggests that a move towards a more legally-based system is inevitable." he said.
