SOCIAL PARTNERSHIP talks are set to collapse next week unless last-minute concessions from the Government are made to guarantee troubled pension schemes.
Union leaders will meet at the Irish Congress of Trade Unions’ executive committee on Tuesday but, privately, senior leaders were pessimistic last night. Speaking in Galway, Siptu president Jack O’Connor said: “Thus far we have not been able to convince the Government of the necessity for a new deal centred on the concept of a social dividend as a means of mobilising the integrated national response that is so necessary.”
The Ictu delegation, led by David Begg, reviewed its position during its meeting yesterday with Government officials, led by the secretary to the Government, Dermot McCarthy.
The two sides are to meet again next week after both the Cabinet and the Ictu national executive meet on Tuesday, but there was little optimism on either side last night, though some Government sources did question if the unions were trying to raise the pressure in the final days.
Mr O’Connor said: “There is no doubt that nothing short of a supreme national effort is required to deal with the present crisis. I actually agree with remarks attributed to the Taoiseach in this morning’s papers that efforts to achieve a social partnership agreement are impeded by the absence of what he described as ‘the usual trade-offs’.”
Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan’s weekend comment that other countries had been amazed by the Government’s ability to impose the pension levy on public servants – which he said would have caused “riots” anywhere else – has caused fury among union leaders.
Some union chiefs have faced bitter criticism from their own ranks for not opposing it more strongly earlier on.
Outlining the unions’ demands last night, Mr O’Connor said: “The trade union movement has argued for a social dividend that can serve as a catalyst to mobilise the entire country in response to the enormous challenges we face . . . That is why we advanced the idea of putting in place the infrastructure for a universal, mandatory, second pillar, pay-related occupational pension system that can be developed parallel with the resumption of economic growth.
“It is also why we have insisted that the Government must put in place measures to maintain the maximum number of people in employment, assist workers who have been paying into pension schemes all their lives only to discover there is nothing for them in the end, and protect people who have become redundant from having their homes repossessed for at least two years. This approach was central to our 10-point plan for a social solidarity pact.”
He did not attribute the Government’s attitude to the unions’ demands “in any way to a lack of integrity, commitment or technical incompetence on the part of the Taoiseach and his colleagues in Government”.
Instead, he attributed it “to the continued pandering to what is perceived to be the sentiment of international finance capital”.
