The country's largest trade union Siptu has voted overwhelmingly in favour of enter new national pay talks.
Approximately 500 members met this morning to consider a motion on entering the talks before it was passed by a show of hands at lunchtime. The result from today's meeting mandates union representatives to enter the talks on behalf of more than 200,000 workers across the State.
Siptu general secretary Joe O’Flynn said after the vote that the talks would “probably be the toughest set of negotiations since the current generation of agreements began over 20 years ago.”
“The current economic difficulties are due to factors outside the control of ordinary working people, such as the irresponsible speculation of major financial institutions.
“It is neither morally nor socially acceptable that ordinary working people be accepted to pick up the tab.”
He said the key concerns were pay, pensions, trade union recognition and quality of life issues such as accessible and high quality health, affordable housing and childcare facilities.
Siptu general president Jack O’Connor told delegates that while the negotiating team would do its best to deliver an acceptable agreement the union also had to prepare for the alternatives. “We are not afraid to negotiate, but we are not afraid to fight either”, he said. “This time it might be necessary to fight and it is important that people prepare to fight now.”
Proposing the motion earlier, Siptu vice president Brendan Hayes said that “ordinary working people” should not be expected to take reduction in pay from those who benefited from “super wages” in recent years.
Siptu's head of research, Manus O’Riordan, told the meeting that real pay was actually frozen in 2006 when inflation and mortgage payments were taken into account.
Several delegates spoke in favour of the motion this morning with Michelle Monaghan from the health professionals branch saying partnership talks were “the only show in town” and it would be a “disaster” to negotiate pay increases alone.
Shop steward Kieran Allen said benchmarking should be scrapped, while other speakers called for equal pay for agency workers and better resourcing of the health services.
The Irish Congress of Trade Union (Ictu), which represents more than 50 unions, is to consider the issue on Thursday.
Ictu’s economic advisor Paul Sweeney said last week there was “serious concern” at the latest inflation figures that show it rose to to 5 per cent in March, up from 4.8 per cent the previous month.
“Irish price levels are already 21 per cent above the EU15 average for consumer services and 14 per cent above it for consumer goods price levels,” Mr Sweeney said.
“This will obviously have a serious impact on any new pay talks.”
Ireland’s second largest trade union, Unite, has said it will be seeking increases "substantially above inflation" in the talks.
In its dicusssion paper on pay, published yesterday, Unite claims Ireland is at the bottom of the list of the average wages paid in the private sector across the 10 wealthiest countries in the EU.
A Unite spokesman said the union would be looking in the pay talks for a flat-rate monetary increase, as distinct from a percentage increase, for lower-paid groups.
It will also be seeking that provision be made in any agreement for local bargaining negotiations for additional rises for workers in profitable companies. Unite has not put an exact figure on the increases it will be seeking. It said this would be an issue to be determined in the talks.