The Commission's annual report shows days lost to annual disputes last year were lowest since 1970. Chris Dooley, Industry and Employment Correspondent, reports.
An initiative to tackle the high level of industrial disputes in the public sector was announced yesterday by the Labour Relations Commission.
While almost two-thirds of the cases referred to the LRC last year were from the private sector, public sector disputes take up more of its time, the commission said. As a result, it plans to set up a public services division to deal with disputes in local authorities, health boards and the public service in general.
The commission, which published its annual report yesterday, said more than 50 per cent of the hours it spent on conciliation last year were on public sector issues.
Last year was another busy one for the LRC, despite the number of days lost to industrial disputes, 21,257, being the lowest since 1970. This was a sharp drop on the 114,613 days lost to strikes in 2001.
The most significant disputes last year were in the public sector, including the strike by junior doctors and the cancellation by Aer Lingus of flights for four days because of a threat of industrial action by pilots.
Launching the report yesterday, the Tánaiste, Ms Harney, said the low number of days lost was "quite extraordinary", and due "in no small way" to the LRC's work.
She criticised some employers and unions, however, for using the LRC as a first resort instead of a last resort to resolve disputes.
Mr Kieran Mulvey, the LRC chief executive, warned that increasing costs to Irish industry had led to a haemorrhaging of jobs to countries in eastern Europe.
This trend was likely to continue, he said, as these countries were challenging Ireland's ability to position itself as a leading location for foreign direct investment.
Mr Mulvey said he was pleased the commission had come successfully through an external audit carried out by Mercer Human Resource Consulting at the behest of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and the LRC board.
The report said the LRC's services had received a "very satisfactory rating", but said the commission had a "serious" staff retention issue.
Last year, 11 of the commission's 39 staff left for a variety of reasons. Staff levels were currently inadequate to meet demands on the LRC's service, the consultants concluded.
The commission's workload is set to increase as a result of the new partnership agreement, Sustaining Progress, which is likely to result in an increased number of pay disputes being referred to it.
However, 12 new assessors have been appointed by the commission to meet this anticipated increase in demand.
A total of 1,693 new disputes were referred to the LRC's conciliation service last year, the annual report said.
More than 70 per cent of these were generated in four sectors: manufacturing, health and social services, public administration and the wholesale and retail trade.
The commission's settlement rate has remained consistently above 80 per cent over the past seven years.