The Labour Relations Commission (LRC) wants to create a forum to co-ordinate the activities of the plethora of agencies now dealing with industrial relations issues.
It also wants Government departments and other State organisations to refer minor disputes to rights commissioners rather than tie up the LRC's conciliation service, which it anticipates will come under severe pressure when the Public Service Benchmarking Body makes its final report in June.
The proposals are contained in the LRC's new Strategy Framework 2002-2004. The LRC consulted widely with the social partners before drafting the plan.
The chief executive of the commission, Mr Kieran Mulvey, says a forum should be established to bring together the LRC, Labour Court, Equality Authority, Office of the Director of Equality Prosecutions, the benchmarking body, the National Centre for Partnership and Performance and the National Implementation Body.
He also wants to review the existing protocol with the Labour Court, which effectively excludes the LRC from cases once referred to the court. However, given the emphasis the court's chairman, Mr Finbarr Flood, has put into ending the "revolving-door" syndrome which allowed disputes to oscillate between the two bodies in the past, the prospects for a review seem slim.
The strategy document says the social partnership model has served Ireland well over the past decade but that "wage inflation is now a reality" in many sectors.
The feedback from consultations with the social partners "suggested the era of national consensus agreements may be approaching an end". Even if a new agreement is reached, it points out that the fall-out from the benchmarking body's deliberations and "a significant trend towards decentralisation of industrial relations negotiations" are likely to increase demand for the LRC's service.
The commission has already secured agreement from the Department of Finance and the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment to a review of resources.
Mr Mulvey says he hopes to seek secure agreement from the public service unions that the commission be allowed to recruit staff from across the Civil Service, to meet staff shortages.
At present the LRC can only recruit within the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. It would probably like to recruit staff through open competition if possible.