TALKS ON a new national pay deal broke up just before midnight and are to resume today. They are expected to continue into tomorrow. no deal: national agreement negotiations to continue
The talks entered a critical phase late last night with unions and employers considering compromise proposals on pay and non-pay issues drawn up by government officials.
The Taoiseach, Brian Cowen, who arrived back at Government Buildings last night to be on hand if needed in the talks, said it remained to be seen whether an agreement could be reached.
Mr Cowen said there were serious issues still to be finalised and addressed to everyone's satisfaction. The problem, he said, was the diverse and different situations that applied in different industries and that it was perhaps hard to find an overall agreement that everyone could live with.
However, the parties were striving to achieve a deal, he said.
The country's largest union, Siptu, warned that reported plans by Aer Lingus to outsource much of its ground operation services which could lead to 1,300 redundancies, could undermine the acceptance by members of any agreement reached.
Siptu president Jack O'Connor said that "if what has been reported in the media were to materialise, it would almost inevitably torpedo anything which might emerge from here.
"The prospect of anything that would emerge from here winning approval against a background against what appears to be envisaged at Aer Lingus is unlikely," he said. Siptu is to hold a special conference and a ballot of all members on any new deal that emerges from the current talks process.
The general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, David Begg, said that it was "unavoidable" that the issue of Aer Lingus would be raised at the pay talks as the company was such a major employer.
Mr Begg said last night that the negotiators in the pay talks were hopeful that agreement could be reached on how a pay agreement would be implemented across various sectors. Agreement on a figure for any pay increase would follow that.
"It is predicated on the belief that we would agree on the figures when all this work is done," he said. "We cannot get into a situation where the derogations from the terms of the agreement become so great that they become the mainstream rather than the exception as our friends in Ibec would have it," he said.
Mr Begg said that he would not express confidence about a deal being reached but said that the fact that the parties were still talking after a week indicated a feeling that further progress was possible.
The director general of the employers' group Ibec, Turlough O'Sullivan, said the talks were delicately balanced and could go either way. "I tend to be more optimistic than pessimistic and the fact we are still here gives me some faint hopes," he said.
The main issues between the parties at the talks remain pay, particularly for low-paid workers, and collective bargaining rights in non-union companies. Unions have said that these issues are deal-breakers. However, employers have warned that movement in these areas could have a negative effect on competitiveness and jobs in the economy.
Speaking yesterday afternoon, Mr Cowen said: "If we can get an appropriate deal, there are benefits as we've seen in the past from centralised pay deals. If it's not possible, people deal at the enterprise level and we move on with whatever that situation presents."
The Taoiseach said that he thought that in the interests of the public finance position, it would be helpful if a deal could be reached.
"But if it doesn't happen, we then have to move on and employers will deal with the private sector at enterprise level.Mr Cowen had set a deadline of last night for conclusion of the second attempt to secure a new national pay deal.