Siptu says it has no confidence in Workplace Relations Commission chair

The country's largest trade union, Siptu last night insisted it had no confidence in the ability of the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) chief executive Kieran Mulvey to chair dispute settlement talks on an independent basis.

The union argued that Mr Mulvey had displayed bias against Luas workers in comments made in an interview on RTÉ's Morning Ireland programme yesterday and should resign.

Mr Mulvey, who is retiring in May, has strongly rejected the suggestion of bias on his part and said he had no intention of, and could not see any reason why he should, stand down.

The controversy is the latest fallout from the ongoing dispute at the Luas light rail system where workers overwhelmingly rejected proposals drawn up in talks at the WRC last month.

Luas staff are again striking this weekend which will halt tram services today and tomorrow.

Rejected

Mr Mulvey said in his view it was “extraordinary” that no one had contacted him from Siptu since the WRC proposals were rejected to explain the reasons why.

He said most union officials who put forward the same proposal would have received a “standing ovation” from their members.

He said “leadership and judgment” were needed and that by any mark, the WRC proposals were “considerable”.

Siptu president Jack O’Connor said Mr Mulvey’s comments did not render him credible as a mediator and that he should resign.

Asked for further comment on the controversy yesterday, Siptu said in a statement: “We have no confidence in the ability of Kieran Mulvey to independently chair dispute settlement talks considering the level of bias he displayed against Luas workers this morning.”

Dispute

In his statement, Mr Mulvey said that “throughout its work in attempting to resolve the ongoing Luas dispute the focus of the WRC has been on bringing the parties together for discussions and to find an outcome that was acceptable to both parties and one that would bring to an end the not inconsiderable inconvenience being imposed on the citizens of Dublin and visitors to the capital”.

Intervene

He said that in inviting Siptu and Luas operator

Transdev

to talks aimed at resolving the row a number of weeks ago, he was “conscious of both parties’ publicly expressed view that the WRC should intervene and I did that in good faith”.

Responding to claims made by Mr O’Connor that an alternative method of resolving the Luas dispute was under active consideration at the time of the WRC intervention, Mr Mulvey said that at no stage was the WRC made aware of this.

“When issuing the invitation I asked the company not to proceed with the supply of alternative transport [buses to replace the trams] on St Patrick’s Day and the company did that. For its part, the trade union called off the action planned for the day”.

Mr Mulvey said the proposals that emerged from the WRC talks on the Luas dispute were, in his view, “the best that could be achieved at the time and he made this known to both parties”.

“I am of the opinion that both parties must surely recognise that any outcome will not be a million miles away from these proposals and ask the question does further disruption of service assist the reaching of such an agreement”.

The union leader: Jack O’Connor

Jack O’Connor has been the general president of Siptu, the country’s largest trade union, since 2003. He has been re-elected by members on several occasions since then.

He was also president of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu) from July 2009 until July 2011, and was a key negotiator on the union side of a number of social partnerships from 2002 until the process collapsed in 2009.

Born in January 1957, he grew up in Lusk, in north Co Dublin, where his father was an agricultural labourer and his mother worked at home.

He joined the Agricultural Labourers’ Union at the age of 16 and worked in the agricultural, construction and local authority sectors.

He became a full-time union official at 23, when the Federation of Rural Workers merged with the Workers’ Union of Ireland to form the FWUI.

When this union merged with the ITGWU to create Siptu in 1990, he was appointed regional secretary of the new body in the midlands.

Since becoming Siptu president, the union has been completely restructured along divisional lines. O’Connor has never served on any State board and has always said he would never do so .

Although a supporter of the Labour Party, he was strongly critical of austerity policies introduced by the Coalition Government. His term as Siptu president expires at the end of next year.

The fixer: Kieran Mulvey

Kieran Mulvey has been the country’s main “fixer” of complex and intractable industrial disputes for a quarter of a century.

From Co Roscommon, the former trade union leader has been the head of the Labour Relations Commission (now the Workplace Relations Commission ) since its creation in 1991.

In UCD in the 1970s, where he studied history and English, he was active in student politics and was elected deputy president of both the UCD student council and the Union of Students in Ireland.

On his 24th birthday in June 1975, he became the youngest general secretary of a national trade union when he was appointed to head the Irish Federation of University Teachers.

He remained in this role for five years before moving to the ASTI in 1980 as general secretary, where he was involved in a number of high- profile teacher disputes.

In recent years he chaired the negotiations that led to the Croke Park, Haddington Road and Lansdowne Road agreements on pay and productivity in the public service.

He was also chairman of the Irish Sports Council and last year was appointed as chairman of Sport Ireland.

Mulvey is due to retire as director general of the Workplace Relations Commission at the end of May.