Talks on a new national pay deal remained on hold last night as employers, unions and the Government struggled to finalise agreement on measures to prevent exploitation of workers, writes Chris Dooley, Industry and Employment Correspondent.
It is now likely to be tomorrow at the earliest before a deal emerges on pay increases for 600,000 union members over the next two to three years.
The parties had hoped to conclude a pay deal over the weekend, but unexpected difficulties have emerged in completing the employment standards strand of the talks.
As negotiations continued late last night, several key issues remained to be resolved.
One concerned the measures needed to ensure all companies involved in public sector contracts are in full compliance with labour laws. A final deal on measures to stamp out the use of bogus sub-contractors, who are in reality employees, for the purpose of avoiding tax and other liabilities was also proving elusive.
Regulation of employment agencies and new laws concerning the keeping of proper records by employers were other areas still under negotiation.
While there was frustration among the parties at the slow progress in the talks, participants remained optimistic that a deal on employment standards remained achievable.
Among the measures already agreed in principle are the appointment of 60 additional labour inspectors, to take the total to 90.
It is envisaged that a new statutory body, the Office of the Director for Employment Rights Compliance, will be established to police employment legislation.
A dramatic increase in penalties, to up to €250,000, for those convicted of breaching labour laws is also on the cards.
Negotiators have also reached an outline agreement on new legislation designed to deter employers from making workers redundant for the purpose of replacing them with cheaper labour.
One of the issues still to be concluded in that regard concerns the level of compensation to be paid to workers who are "displaced" by others on inferior pay and conditions.
Separate legislation is also to be introduced to make it illegal for an employer to sack workers for engaging in an industrial dispute, as happened in the case of catering company Gate Gourmet in Britain last August.
One source at the talks said the difficulties that remained in the area of employment standards were "not insurmountable". Another said they were more about the efficacy of the measures proposed, rather than to do with fundamental issues of principle.
Participants at the talks were hopeful that, with employment standards finally out of the way, negotiations on pay could begin in earnest today.
Department of the Taoiseach secretary general Dermot McCarthy, who is chairing the talks, faces a difficult task in finding common ground on the pay issue.
Employers continue to insist that a new agreement cannot include any provision that would allow workers to pursue "top up" increases in highly profitable companies. Failure to secure such a measure would increase the pressure on unions to secure the maximum possible basic pay increases.
While figures have not yet been tabled at the talks, it is generally speculated that the final deal will involve pay increases of between four and five per cent per year.
Negotiations on the wider social agenda have also yet to be completed. These would form an overall 10-year social partnership agreement, with the pay element to be renegotiated at intervals.