THE LEADER of the country’s largest trade union has said he considers that there is now no potential for concluding a social partnership deal with the Government on economic recovery and that the process is over.
Siptu president Jack O'Connor told The Irish Timesthat if the Government was serious about reaching an agreement, Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan would not have made comments about the possibility of the minimum wage having to be cut in some circumstances.
Mr O’Connor also said the unions had “rolled over backwards to the point of being humiliated” and that members around the country were asking why they had allowed themselves to be dragged into an endless process.
Talks between the Government, unions and employers on a social partnership deal on economic recovery have been under way, on and off, since last January.
Last month the Government put new proposals on the table for a deal including a €250 million job subsidy scheme and it had been expected that further talks would take place in September.
Many trade union leaders were disappointed at the scale of the Government’s proposals for an economic recovery deal – they had sought a €1 billion job protection and creation scheme.
However, Mr O’Connor said yesterday that Mr Lenihan’s comments on the minimum wage “had put the tin hat on it”.
Speaking in Glenties, Co Donegal, a fortnight ago, Mr Lenihan said: “The minimum wage issue has been under debate in recent months. Clearly if the minimum wage becomes an impediment to job creation the Government has to look at it. It’s not that clear by the way, that the minimum wage in general poses an obstacle to job creation, but there is a danger that if it poses an obstacle to particular sectors of the economy, it will have to be addressed in that context.”
Taoiseach Brian Cowen later said that the examination of the national minimum wage was a matter for the Labour Court and not for the Government. Mr O’Connor had previously been strongly critical of Mr Lenihan’s comments on the minimum wage and had urged the Taoiseach to “rein in” the hawks in the Department of Finance.
However, yesterday the Siptu leader said that while he would attend further meetings if invited by the Government, he believed the process was over and had no potential. “The statement as I see it has brought down the shutters on any possibility of there being a deal,” he said. Mr O’Connor said the senior people in the Government were very intelligent and not fools.
He added that if the Government had seriously intended to conclude a deal then members of the Government would not have been making inflammatory statements.
Mr O’Connor had strongly criticised calls by some business leaders and commentators for reductions in the minimum wage.
He maintained that this would have “a microscopic effect” on the price of products made or developed here.