A SIPTU conference at the weekend was told Partnership 2000 is coming under increasing criticism from private sector workers.

SIPTU's national industrial secretary, Mr John Kane, said the workers felt the most restrictive elements of Partnership 2000 were applied to them while managers awarded themselves grade increases far in excess of the agreement.

Mr Kane told SIPTU's Dublin private regional conference that the annual reports of many plcs demonstrate that "the captains of industry see no difficulty in upholding the restrictive clauses in P2000 while awarding themselves increases that are multiples of those available to our members".

He said "that type of duplicity will only serve to bring the whole centralised bargaining process into disrepute".

Mr Kane said if there P2000 is to be replaced with a new agreement, the trade union movement will have to be very conscious of the depth of feeling among workers in the private sector. "They can but watch, with some envy, at the flexibility enjoyed by many of their colleagues in the public sector in tackling comparability claims, special increases etc."

Mr Jack Nash, regional secretary, SIPTU Dublin Private Sector, told the conference the buoyant Irish economy was not raising all boats. "Both the poverty trap and poverty are increasing," according to Mr Nash.

SIPTU's chief economist, Mr Manus O`Riordan, accused the government of failing to keep the position of the long-term unemployed on the agenda for EU eMployment policy. The EU Commission has concluded this is no longer a priority for the Irish Government, Mr O'Riordan claimed.

He said a recent OECD study among 29 member states had shown Ireland to have the second highest concentration of long-term unemployed among those unemployed aged 45. "It is for this reason that the failure of the first set of European Employment Guidelines to set any targets for the stock of long-term unemployment came as a particular disappointment to Ireland."