EMPLOYERS, TRADE unions and Government officials are expected to begin discussing the crucial issue of pay as they enter the fourth day of the resumed talks on a new social partnership deal today. However, all the indications are that the process will continue into the weekend.
Yesterday the parties met with the Department of Enterprise and Employment on employment rights legislation. Much of the last few days has been concentrated on the non-pay elements of any new deal. However, figures close to the talks said the parties were likely to begin considering the pay issues from today.
The moves come as the Irish Small and Medium Enterprises Association, which is not represented at the talks, called yesterday for a one-year pay freeze across the board and a two-year public sector recruitment embargo.
Last Friday, the Taoiseach Brian Cowen said that he wanted a short sharp period of negotiations which could be completed within a week. However, in public at least, the positions of the unions and employers remain far apart in relation to pay, the length of any pay pause and issues such as collective bargaining rights. Since Monday, unions and employers have been engaged in a number of bilateral sessions with Government officials on the non-pay agenda.
Essentially this process is aimed at building up to a position allowing Government officials to estimate whether a deal is possible. If an agreement is considered to be achievable, the parties are likely to move into a final session. Any such final session is not expected to get under way until Friday or possibly Saturday.
The non-pay element in the talks is made up of "unfinished business" from the last deal, such as legislation on workplace rights.
The Employment Rights Compliance Bill has been published, but not brought before the Oireachtas. The issue of this legislation has been raised consistently by unions such as Siptu.
Perhaps even more problematical is the collective bargaining question. Unions believe that limited measures to allow them to represent members in non-union firms were effectively emasculated as a result of a Supreme Court ruling last year in a case brought by Ryanair and they see a new legislative framework for collective bargaining as a "deal breaker".
Senior union leaders have indicated that if this issue had been addressed in the failed talks in July then the outcome could have been different. Employers are strongly opposed to any new law to force companies to recognise unions, warning Ireland could lose new foreign investment.
However, pay remains the core element of the current talks.
Unions want specific increases for the lower paid who they view as workers earning less than €38,000. They have indicated that they were prepared to accept lower-than-inflation rises provided measures were included to protect the lower paid.
Employers have argued that it is not tenable for unions to seek special increases for large swathes of the workforce earning less than €38,000 in the current economic circumstances.
