The Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu) has said talks with the Government on a social solidarity deal for national recovery have effectively ended and that ball is now in the court of the Government.
Speaking after a meeting of Ictu’s national executive today its general secretary David Begg said there was nothing more that it could say to the Government on the unions’ 10-point plan for economic recovery.
He said it was “just not credible to keep talking and to get nothing back”. Mr Begg described the talks as being like “playing handball against a haystack”.
Mr Begg said the unions expected to hear back from the Government before the end of the week. He said that for the unions the key issues remained measures for dealing with the unemployment crisis, a pension protection scheme for workers in the private sector and the management of change in the public service.
He said it was clear the Department of Finance now had the dominant role in Government affairs. “That does not lend itself to easily addressing these issues,” he said.
Mr Begg said it was possible that a failure to agree a social part deal could lead to industrial action in some sectors. However, he said this was not a logical or necessary projection out of the current situation. He said the position in this regard would evolve.
A number of unions have plans for industrial action in the event of the talks on a national recovery deal collapsing.
The Cabinet was also meeting today to consider the state of the talks. The Government believes it is highly unlikely it can agree a traditional-type social partnership agreement with employers and unions, and it is to decide this week on a possible new approach.
Last week, employers' body Ibec said it supported proposals put forward today by Ictu for a €1 billion package of measures to protect jobs.
It is believed the Government is prepared to consider initiatives in a number of areas put forward by the social partners in the recent talks, particularly on job protection.
The Government may also look at boosting the €100 million available to assist companies in trouble under the new Enterprise Stability Fund announced in the recent budget by using money which would otherwise have had to be paid out in social welfare payments to staff who would have lost jobs.
Siptu president Jack O’Connor has said "nothing short of a supreme national effort" is needed to deal with the crisis.
