The Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu) today fired a shot across the bows of the Government and employers ahead of pay talks due to get under way later this week.
Speaking in advance of the national pay talks due to start on Thursday, Ictu chief David Begg said the “blather” directed at unions urging them to be reasonable and moderate in seeking pay increases “doesn’t cut much ice” given the “greed and avarice” driving pay at the top levels.
However, director of employers group Ibec Brendan McGinty said the forthcoming talks will be the most difficult since the process began.
He said the group was disappointed that Ictu was "indulging in what seems to be inflammatory and divisive comments at a time when we need to pull together in the national interest".
Ibec accused Ictu of demonstrating the "blatant weaknesses" in its case for inflationary pay increases for workers by focusing on what it said was the remuneration of a "relatively small number of chief executives of international trading companies".
Speaking in Dublin as Ictu published a major new economic study focusing on the dramatic rise in the cost of living, Mr Begg said there was an "increased imperative" going into the pay talks to do something for lower-paid workers.
He said he believed a "sense of common purpose" in Irish society had been "eroded by the greed of the people at the top of private industry", and criticised what he said were "extraordinary" levels of remuneration at the top end of the private sector.
Mr Begg said he was not “putting it up” to the employers yet because the time to do that was across the table at the pay talks.
“What I am pointing out, I guess, is that there’s a real difficulty in Irish society now. At one level, it makes perfect common sense at a time of difficulty to say we need to get a kind of common purpose about what we need to do in the country.
"But I’m saying that’s missing. And it’s missing because the country in how it operates is seen to be so unequal and so unfair. There’s no way that we are going to make a single-handed appeal to our people for moderation when everybody else looks after themselves so well. Our people join trade unions to be looked after and our primary objective going into these talks is to look after our members.”
The Ictu report looks at labour costs and highlights the growing wage gap in the private and public sectors.
It says there will be a net loss for workers under the full period of the 27-month Towards 2016pay agreement and thus "no improvement in living standards".
It says inflationary pressure is strong with food and energy accounting for up to 35 per cent of weekly income of those on lower pay. Mr Begg said today he did not believe the assurances of the Central Bank and the ESRI that inflation would moderate, despite recent
"inflation averaged 4 per cent in 2006 and 4.9 per cent in 2007," the report says.
"The Central Bank and ESRI said it would average only 4.6 per cent in early 2007, but Congress estimated a higher figure for 2007 and for 2008. The forecasts of both bodies have been proven wrong and each subsequently revised their inflation forecast upwards."
Asked if he would ask the Government to abandon its own pay rises in order to show leadership in the pay talks, Mr Begg said he would not, unless he could get the private sector to do the same.
“The big scandal for me is the extraordinary amounts of money – combinations of salaries, of share options, of bonuses - which apply to the heads of the private sector companies," he said.
“To make any impression on us in terms of establishing any sense of common purpose about the management of the country through a difficult economic period, ‘gesture politics’ on behalf of the politicians wouldn’t cut the mustard – it would have to be a broadly genuine effort by everybody in society.”
The study, Economic Outlook 2008: Narrowing the Pay Gap, is widely seen as an opportunity for Ictu to promote its case for improved wages in the negotiations with Government and employers.
It examines the key issues facing the Irish economy this year and beyond with the major issues the rapid rise in inflation and basic necessities.
Ictu's economic advisor Paul Sweeney said ordinary trade unionists were annoyed by people at the top "who could support a football team" in voluntary taxes but are not paying them. He said "corporate greed" had crept in and some companies are using accounts abroad to evade tax.
The Ictu report says Congress is "perturbed" by what it calls "the flight from financial disclosure" in Ireland.
It says there has been a "steady increase" in the flight from limited company status by companies seeking to avoid financial disclosure.
Firms are thereby hiding "soaring" pay and benefits of their top executives from the majority of employees, and also avoiding tax with with the "complex" use of many companies, Ictu claims.
Taoiseach-designate Brian Cowen is to deliver a keynote address at a major economic conference organised by Ictu tomorrow, a day before the pay talks open.
The conference at Croke Park in Dublin will address the theme of Globalisation and Irish Workerswith Mr Cowen expected to focus on how the Irish economy can best respond to the challenge.
Mr Begg today indicated outgoing Taoiseach and Fianna Fáil leader Bertie Ahern would be a "loss" to the pay talks in terms of his negotiating skills, but he said there were no "relationship problems" with Brian Cowen.
"I’ve been dealing with him myself for over 20 years so I know the man quite well. There are no relationship problems with him as such – he has to do his job, we have to do ours," he said.
“Bertie [Ahern], I think, is justifiably regarded as having special skills in negotiating deals, not just here but he has on his CV the agreement in Northern Ireland and also the agreement on the constitution last time round when he was president of Europe. So he’s undoubtedly a person with huge skills in this particular area, and he will be a loss, there’s no doubt."