The trade union movement "will not countenance" a repeat of the protracted local pay bargaining that marked the Programme for Competitiveness and Work (PCW), a senior trade union leader has warned.
The general secretary of IMPACT, Mr Peter McLoone, has told his union conference that public service managers had been put on notice that negotiations on the 2 per cent pay increase due under the local bargaining clause of Partnership 2000 must be concluded on time - by July 1999.
Staff would no longer accept delays, which had led to pay negotiations for some groups under PCW being dragged out for more than four years. "The management side has ample time to get its act together between now and the implementation date," he said. "We will not accept that this date can become a moveable feast."
He also told members the abolition of the conciliation and arbitration schemes for many members and the transfer of their disputes resolution procedures to the Labour Relations Commission and Labour Court should speed up the system.
The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment had promised that the enabling legislation would be in place by July 1st and access to the LRC and the court would be available from September 1st.
However, he also said the most important change needed was in the culture and attitude of the public service to the individual worker within the system. "This might do more to get rid of the conditions that currently inhibit positive participation in the workplace than all the `models' of partnership put together."
Partnership 2000 came in for strong criticism from members. Mr Declan Howard, from the Fingal branch, said "members find it difficult to relate to". There was no way that the 2 per cent pay rise available under local bargaining would compensate members for all the changes being sought in the SMI strategy for the local authorities.
Mr Willy Cunningham of the architecture and heritage branch said national agreements left union leaders acting as policemen, telling branch activists what they could not do. Mr Finbarr O'Driscoll, Cork, said the 1990 Industrial Relations Act, which was "full of responsibilities and restrictions" for trade unions, but left them very few rights, urgently needed amendment.
He said social partnership was "a one-way street morality" for many companies.
