Labour Youth opposes social partnership

Issued : Tuesday 30 May, 2006

Labour Youth is opposed to Social Partnership.

Social partnership is a system in Ireland where interest groups play an active role in decision and policy making. It describes tripartite, triennial national wage agreements reached within the country, whereupon the government, main employer groups and the Irish Congress of Trades Unions (ICTU) voluntarily agree on 'pay pacts.' In 1987, the Unions, Employers and Farmers were called to meetings that led to the first social partnership, The Programme for National Recovery. This agreement, with its built-in wage restraint, was meant to create the economic stability that was needed for economic recovery to ensue.

At first the agreements focused mainly on income, but as the economy recovered they began to concentrate more on issues at every level. Since 1987, when the process was initiated in response to a struggling economy and high inflation, the Social Partnership has set centralised, national wage increases, as well as provided a policy for agreements over welfare, education, health and employment issues.

The current social partnership agreement, which became effective in January 2003 and ends December 2005, is called Sustaining Progress. The main participants include the government through the Taoiseach, the main employers unions (the Irish Business and Economic Confederation and the Construction Industry Federation), and the ICTU. The ICTU represents over 40 trade unions, and about 550,000 members (one third) of employees in Ireland. The last two social partnerships, organized in 2000 and 2003 respectively, included an agreement between government and employers, trade unions, farmers, and the Community and Voluntary Sector Pillar. Social partnerships operate for three years, and the current government claims that they support partnership in the public and private sectors aimed at modernizing the workplace and improving performance and service delivery. They also claim that social partnerships provide for policy agreements over welfare, education, health, and employment issues.

However Social Partnership has taken place against a backdrop of the gap between rich and poor widening in Irish society. We have also seen an erosion in the pay and conditions of workers as management displace workers and bring in exploited foreign Labour as seen in the case of GAMA and Irish Ferries. This race to the bottom must be avoided at all costs. As employment becomes increasingly precarious and workers rights are eroded it is time to call a halt to social partnership and it is time for unions to take a more robust, radical and independent strategy in fighting for better pay and conditions