A "jobs partnership" between employers and unions at local level has been proposed by the general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) to tackle unemployment.
Speaking at the opening of talks on a successor to the Programme for Competitiveness and Work, Mr Peter Cassells said that developing a partnership would be the key issue for the unions in any new agreement.
He outlined the ICTU's other main concerns as pay, tax reform and tackling social exclusion. On pay, he pointed out that people's expectations rose during periods of high economic growth.
This should not be discouraged, he said, since decent pay rises helped to motivate individuals and society to move forward. But he accepted that it was "also reasonable to try to meet these expectations in a way which does not jeopardise economic progress".
Unemployment remained the biggest challenge facing Irish society, Mr Cassells said. More jobs were needed, but not jobs at any price. The ICTU did not accept that pay and conditions in some sectors such as the tourist industry, could be so bad that employers "have to hire cheap labour from abroad".
The ICTU fully supported the approach of the National Economic and Social Council that the overall strategy to combat unemployment required inter departmental co operation at Government level and cross sectoral support among the social partners at local and industry level.
He also said that there was "a very big gap in the partnership approach to tackling unemployment at the level of individual companies and institutions".
He proposed that a "jobs partnership" made up of management and union representatives should be established at company level with "responsibility for making existing jobs secure and exploring all opportunities for creating new jobs".
Modernising workplaces to cope with change and the provision of good wages for skilled jobs should be the priority of employers and unions in every sector, he said.