TRADE UNION leaders are today expected to accept an invitation from the Taoiseach to take part in talks on a new national agreement on economic recovery and to call off a wave of threatened strikes planned for Monday.
The executive council of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu) is to meet today to consider the talks proposal put forward yesterday by Taoiseach Brian Cowen as well as a similar offer made by the employers’ group Ibec at the weekend.
A Government spokesman said last night that, subject to a positive response from the parties, any such talks were likely to start by the weekend.
“In this context the Taoiseach expects that there would be no basis for the proposed action on March 30th to proceed.”
The general secretary of Ictu, David Begg, last night welcomed the Taoiseach’s invitation to take part in talks, as did Ibec.
Senior union sources said last night that it was expected that Ictu would accept the invitation and call off the day of action scheduled for Monday.
Sources said the planned strikes had been aimed at encouraging the Government to re-engage in talks.
Informed sources also said that there would be an expectation that if Ictu accepted the invitation to enter new talks then the strikes would be called off.
The wave of strikes in parts of the public and private sectors had the potential to cause serious disruption, particularly in the transport, health and education sectors.
However, the campaign suffered a number of significant blows in recent days.
Yesterday Impact, the largest public sector union, said it had no basis to sanction industrial action after a ballot result fell marginally short of the level of support required under its rules.
Last night the Association of Higher Civil and Public Servants also voted decisively not to take part in the planned action.
It is understood that Siptu staff in the Higher Education Authority also voted against participating in the strike.
The Government last night also said it would “become clear within days, or, perhaps, even within 24 hours” whether there was a realistic prospect of agreement being reached.
However, it did expect that the threat of strike action would be lifted completely, and that the unions would reply quickly to the Taoiseach’s talks invitation.
“We expect a reply by evening. We are interested in entering into negotiations,” said a Government spokesman, who refused to respond to questions suggesting that the unions had lost some negotiating power by the lack of enthusiasm among some workers for Monday’s strike.
While it would be clear quickly if negotiations had a chance of success, the spokesman said “the deadline for such talks would be the budget”.
“We expect that it would be clear within a few days if progress is possible. There is a belief that there is a willingness to re-engage,” the spokesman said.
The Government believed that “a lot of this work” necessary to reach an agreement on a new social partnership had “been done anyway”.
Ibec director general Turlough O’Sullivan said there was an urgent need to put in place agreed measures to secure the economic viability of the country and protect the maximum number of jobs.
The Taoiseach told the unions in his letter that there was an overwhelming case for “the development of an integrated national response to the complex interplay of domestic and global forces which must be confronted, and for this response to be effective by commanding widespread societal ownership”.
He said he saw “considerable merits” in the many aspects of the 10-point plan for economic recovery drawn up by Ictu.
