NINE years of national agreements among governments, unions and employers have failed the unemployed, according to the Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed.
"Key questions affecting the unemployed and their chances of ever getting a decent job were either ignored or were resolved against our interests," the chairman of the INOU, Mr Paul Billings, said in a statement yesterday. It was aimed at the special delegate conference of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, which takes place in Dublin today to consider entering talks on a successor to the Programme for Competitiveness and Work.
The INOU renewed its call for full representation at the talks. Mr Billings said that when an INOU delegation met the Taoiseach, Mr Bruton, earlier this year to discuss its claim to a seat at the negotiating table "he recognised we have a special case". A number of unions, including the ATGWU, AGEMOU - and the NUJ, also supported the INOU's right to negotiation.
The INOU priorities in any new national agreement included job creation, tax reforms for the low paid, and extending the Local Employment Service from pilot areas to the whole country, the statement said. The LES is designed to find jobs for the long-term unemployed.
There should be a guarantee of "an offer of a decent worthwhile job for everyone who has been unemployed for five years or more," says Mr Billings. This could be modelled on the 1,000-job initiative pioneered by the Conference of Religious of Ireland.
Drug abuse is destroying entire communities, the INOU says. If programmes tackling it are to have any effect they must offer assistance to people in finding a decent job.
On welfare fraud, the INOU says it supports effective measures to eliminate abuse. However, such measures should not cause unnecessary hardship to those who are genuinely unemployed. New control measures must not undermine schemes like the Back to Work allowance or Job Start.