Employers have accused unions of "seeking to ride two horses at once" in talks on a new national partnership deal, which adjourned yesterday without progress.
Senior Government official Dermot McCarthy, who is chairing the talks, will make a renewed effort next week to find common ground between the sides. However, there is now little prospect of an agreement by the mid-March target identified when talks began three weeks ago.
In a document debated at the talks yesterday, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu) set out the legal and regulatory changes it is seeking to underpin employment standards.
It wants the Labour Court to be given new powers to compel employers to meet "industry norms" of pay and conditions.
It also believes the court should have a role in preventing employers from making workers redundant in order to replace them with cheaper labour.
"In short, an employer should have to clearly demonstrate the case for redundancy," the Ictu paper says. "We propose that in any case of proposed redundancy, workers or their representatives or the minister for labour affairs might refer the case to the Labour Court for binding determination."
These and other legislative changes demanded by Ictu are opposed by employer bodies Ibec and the Construction Industry Federation.
In a paper also debated yesterday, the employers said much had been made by Ictu, and Siptu in particular, of their concern for migrant workers and the risk of exploitation.
"However, any reasoned assessment of the debate shows that the trade union movement is seeking to ride two horses at once by creating an impression of general exploitation of migrant workers and concern among many ordinary working people that their jobs may be at risk due to the growing presence of migrant labour in the economy."
Additional "layers of regulation" aimed at migrant workers would be divisive.
Rather than endorsing the Ictu demands for more regulation, employers say a new agreement should cater for more flexible employment practices such as temporary and part-time work.
Their submission says any new agreement must address the urgent need to restore competitiveness to Irish business.
Achieving the targets on competitiveness in the EU's Lisbon Agenda would require a "reassessment of inflexible and outdated social protection legislation, and more emphasis on the concept of personal responsibility".
Employers have also demanded key changes to existing partnership procedures, such as the inability-to-pay provisions of Sustaining Progress. Under any new agreement inability to pay should relate to competitiveness and not just financial performance.
