The early morning agreement between management and unions in the Irish Ferries dispute could rekindle social partnership talks, it was acknowledged today.
Head of employers' group Ibec, Turlough O'Sullivan said the deal showed partnership works and Siptu president Jack O'Connor said he could envisage the union re-entering talks on a new deal.
Negations on a successor to Sustaining Progressfailed to get off the ground in October, primarily because of the rancorous Irish Ferries dispute. But months of talks and several interventions by the Labour Relations Commission and the National Implementation Body paid off at around 5.30am today, when management and unions arrived at a resolution.
The deal will see Irish Ferries vessels reflagged and new workers paid minimum wage or more.
Workers are currently being balloted and a result is expected this afternoon with the expectation the deal will be endorsed.
Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Michéal Martin said the settlement emphasised the importance of social partnership. "In terms of protecting decent standards in the workplace, in terms of underpinning the rights of workers, social partnership remains the ultimate guarantor into the future," he said.
Labour Party leader Pat Rabbitte said the likely settlement should not be viewed as an achievement for social partnership and noted that up to 97 per cent of seafarers could be made redundant while only minimum wage was secured for new employees.
Sinn Féin spokesman on employment and workers rights Arthur Morgan today welcomed the resolution saying it was "not the preferred outcome ... but significantly better than the original shameful package which the company was proposing".
Inspectors must monitor enforcement of the agreement, he added.
Fine Gael's Phil Hogan said he was "particularly glad" that Irish and foreign workers will be subject to Irish employment laws.
Turlough O'Sullivan said the deal showed partnership was robust. "There is no problem so complex, so serious, that cannot be settled and resolved by the partnership process," Mr O'Sullivan said.
He said that while he did not want to recriminate, he expressed disappointment that Siptu had allowed a single dispute to threaten partnership.
"One of the sad elements about this dispute is that conclusions were drawn from it that were never likely to happen ... what has happened at this particular company, Irish Ferries, is unique to international shipping and to be drawing conclusions about it in terms of what decent employers would do throughout Ireland is quite wrong," he told RTÉ Radio's Morning Ireland.
Speaking on the same programme, Jack O'Connor said he had always insisted a single dispute would not dictate the future of partnership but the
Irish Ferries row highlighted the labour movement's concern about a trend in employment conditions.
The issues of "job displacement, exploitation and protection of employment standards" are still at stake, Mr O'Connor said.
He added that a recent recognition by the National Implementation Body
- which includes an Ibec representative
- that employment standards could be under threat, gave confidence that new partnership talks could take place.
"I can envisage a situation in which we will recommend to a conference that we should go into negotiations," Mr Connor said, however, "we're not prepared to participate in a charade," he added.