THE IRISH Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu) has said it will attend talks today with the Government on a proposed new employment protection scheme. It is expected the talks will centre on the nuts and bolts of how it will operate rather than on a philosophical debate on what can and cannot be achieved.
The talks on the jobs initiative forms part of the latest attempt to negotiate a social partnership agreement on national recovery.
Last week, Taoiseach Brian Cowen told trade unions that the Government intended to introduce a new jobs initiative and to use resources which would otherwise have been spent on social welfare payments.
It is understood that the design of the new initiative has been left largely to be determined in the talks with the social partners.
Ictu and employers’ group Ibec have both sought a State investment of up to €1 billion in a new programme aimed at creating and protecting jobs.
At a special meeting yesterday, senior figures in Ictu considered proposals for inclusion in the new jobs initiative, such as short-time working and special leave arrangements.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the Labour Court, Kevin Duffy, has said that disputes coming before it are increasingly about influencing the effects of the economic downturn rather than about sharing the fruits of success.
He said it was inevitable that the rapidly changing national economic situation would impact on the nature of the work of the State’s employment dispute resolution agencies into the mid-term but that it was unclear as to the nature of this.
Mr Duffy said the volume of cases coming to the Labour Court increased by 28 per cent last year. He said a main factor in this was a rise in the number of complaints alleging breaches of registered employment agreements governing pay and conditions.
Equality referrals reduced by 26 per cent compared to 2007.