The Irish Congress of Trade Unions has published guidelines for unions on gain-sharing, profit-sharing and employee share ownership plans.
Mr Peter Cassells, general secretary of the ICTU, said that as Partnership 2000 came to a close it was important to ensure profits were shared more fairly without stoking inflation.
"We are at a crossroads," he said. "Are companies going to treat workers as another cost of production or as real stakeholders? The partnership process has led to a high level of profits. That process won't survive if companies don't show a willingness to share them. We are asking all companies and union representatives to look at financial participation."
Mr Tom Wall, assistant general secretary, said that different approaches were set out in the document. These included conventional profit-sharing, share options and employee share ownership plans.
Union representatives from companies involved in one or other form of profit-sharing described how they worked. Mr Alan Tormey said that in Cement Roadstone employees could get shares and sell them after three years. Mr Tony O'Rourke, from the same company, said that for the younger person this meant they had cash for their children's education, while the older employee who had previously been reluctant to take early retirement could now do so. Mr Seamus O'Brien from Dairygold said that when redundancies were threatened the employees drew up a plan to participate in setting the budget, and benefit from any savings made. It was hard to sell at first, he said, as it meant that they would suffer if costs were above budget, but in the seven years of the plan's existence gains had been made by the employees every year.
Mr Tommy Greene of Union camp, a multinational corrugated paper manufacturer, said they had a gain-sharing plan, which arose out of dissatisfaction with the increases under national wage agreements. Under this, increased profits were shared between the company and the workers on a 45/ 45 basis, with 10 per cent going towards taxes. The payout to employees was capped at 6 per cent of wages.
Mr Sean O'Keeffe, Irish Permanent, said that each employee had received 300 shares as part of the company's flotation. An Employee Share Ownership Plan was put in place, with the agreement of the Revenue Commissioners.