Social Partnership - Partnership Collapse

Partnership Collapse

Concern at exchequer deficits of over €20 billion, resulting from the collapse of the construction speculative bubble, dominated political discourse and over two decades of social corporatism was continuously questioned during 2009. Increasing unemployment - rising from 4% to 12% - in two years fueled questioning of comparative pay rates in the public sector and its allied security of employment compared to pay freezes and increased redundancies experienced in the private sector.

The second stage pay terms, described as a 'transition agreement', effectively collapsed at the end of 2009 when the Government imposed income cuts of between 5% and 8% for about 315,000 public servants in its Budget. Belated attempts by the ICTU public service committee to offer efficiencies and flexibility in public service work practices, allied to a vague proposal for 12 days unpaid leave to be taken by all public servants during 2010, failed to secure either political or public support or prevent the income reductions.

Nine months earlier (March 2009) the Fianna Fáil/Green Party coalition government had imposed a 5% 'pension levy' on public service earnings to 'compensate' for the earnings-related defined benefit pensions enjoyed by public service employees. In June 2009 the government and IBEC failed to secure agreement with ICTU to amend the transition pay terms to reflect the impact of an economic depression and deflation in consumer prices.

At the end of December 2009 the main employer body, IBEC, formally withdrew from the terms of the transition agreement having failed to agree a suspension of the pay terms with ICTU. It stated that "we are entering a period of enterprise level bargaining in unionised employments". .

Following 23 years of social partnership the Irish trades unions (ICTU) entered the new decade seriously weakened and with union employee density down to 31% compared to a density highpoint of 62% in the early 1980s preceding the series of seven corporatist social pacts. Union penetration is highly imbalanced with a density approaching 80% in the public sector and around 20% in the larger private sector. Union members are now more likely to be over 45, married with children, Irish-born with third-level qualifications and working in semi-professional occupations, especially in the health, education or public administration sectors, rather than the traditional image of being lower-paid vulnerable, low-skill workers.

Instead of reviving the Christian-democratic form of corporatism which dominated Ireland's social partnership, ICTU leaders renewed their proposals for a social-democratic arrangement modeled on some Nordic states welfare systems. The trades unions lack the political influence to develop a social-democratic political force while the current Irish government is suggesting a form of 'social dialogue' to replace the more rigid 'social partnership' arrangements.

In March 2010, under the banner of "social dialogue", the ICTU public service unions and the Government negotiated a three-year pay-freeze and the potential claw-back of some of the imposed pay-cuts in return for verified efficiencies and increased flexible working rosters and mobility of up to 45 km between workplaces. It also included an accord on reviewing any decisions to outsource some aspects of public services to ensure value-for-money. Unlike earlier "social partnership" procedures the main private sector employer bodies were not involved and the negotiations were facilitated by the state Labour Relations Commission (LRC).