Talks on the new national agreement may be one of the shortest on record, Mr John McDonnell, the general secretary of SIPTU,warned last night at the union's 500-delegate south-west regional conference in Killarney.
In a stinging attack on IBEC, Mr McDonnell said the employer organisation's "bloody-minded" attitude in relation to the union's statutory redundancy campaign, if it continued, would lead to a rapid breakdown of negotiations with workers' representatives.
Improvement in statutory redundancy payments was essential as far as the union was concerned if a new national agreement was to be put together.
"IBEC's mean-spirited app-roach has been to begrudge these workers [those seeking better redundancy deals] even the simple cushion of a statutory redundancy payment set at a modest three weeks' pay per year of service as the minimum baseline payment.
"If they continue to adopt this kind of posturing during the upcoming talks, then we could be looking at a very rapid breakdown in the negotiations," Mr McDonnell said.The talks for a new agreement are due to begin in the next few weeks.
There would also have to be substantial movement on the question of trade union recognition. For true social partnership, partners had to recognise the right of the other to exist, he said.
Similarly, the Government's abolition of community employment schemes (CES) was "simply unacceptable".
An economy near full employment still needed such schemes, he said.
Mr McDonnell also said: "With over 40,000 redundancies in the last 21 months the employment situation has become much more volatile."
Wage increases, not cuts in pay - which was what was being proposed when employers recommended rises at less than the rate of inflation - were also "absolutely central" to the issue of the new talks, Mr McDonnell warned.
"As far as we are concerned the bargaining around the table at the national talks will be about exactly how much in excess of the inflation rate that increase should be."
A tax on the profits of property speculators should be considered instead of taxes on children's allowance and cuts in CES schemes, Mr McDonnell said.
"We will be making it clear that quick fixes like taxing children's allowances or any similar harebrained notions are unacceptable."
Mr McDonnell retired last night from his position on his 60th birthday.