Impact wants new social partnership

THE LEADER of the largest public service trade union has called for the development of a new style of social partnership between Government, unions, employers and other groups in a bid to get the country out of the current economic crisis.

Impact general secretary Shay Cody said a new framework or agreement was needed.

Addressing the union’s health and Civil Service divisional conference in Tralee yesterday, he said the union could and should be self-critical about past experiences of social partnership.

“Over time, we became too deeply embedded in the system. We ended up endorsing Government policies that we had no influence on or . . . understanding of. Members got this 100-page booklet that, by and large, was a programme for government that a lot of us never worked for and we endorsed it because we liked the money.

“We got sucked into that process and we should learn from the lessons of that,” he added.

He said Impact and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions believed that a new framework was required. “In such a new approach all sides, Government, unions, employers and the other social actors need to retain their independence and their critical voice . . . We need a serious engagement for the public and private sectors to get this country out of the mess that it is in.”