Talks on a new agreement to succeed Partnership 2000 are making progress, according to sources close to the negotiations. However, no hard offer has yet been made and is thought unlikely ahead of today's meeting of the Irish Business and Employers Confederation.
The IBEC council is due to hear a report from its director general, Mr John Dunne, on negotiations so far. If he is to seek any extra remit from his members on the pay terms that can be offered to the trade unions it is likely to be today.
Talks, which were continuing late yesterday, are understood to have made significant progress in a number of areas. There appears to be growing consensus between IBEC and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions for the costs of childcare to employers and working parents to be recognised in the tax code.
However, organisations in the voluntary and community sector, the fourth pillar to the talks, have been arguing for a new parents' childcare payment, rather than tax relief for parents in the workplace. Ms Noeleen Hartigan, of the Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed, said last night that how the social partners dealt with the childcare issue would determine whether the new agreement was primarily about building a better society or put economic growth first.
The ICTU general secretary, Mr Peter Cassells, said later that congress was determined that any benefits from a new agreement "will be shared fairly throughout society, not just those at work".
Child benefit, an improved national minimum wage, significant flat-rate increases for the low paid, further tax cuts for low- and middle-income PAYE workers, and more scope for gain-sharing deals will all be important mechanisms in redistributing wealth among those economically active. The fact remains that without a significant improvement in the employers' expected offer on pay these will be insufficient to secure trade union support for a new agreement.
While IBEC is not expected to come anywhere near the 20 per cent being sought by the ICTU leaders, it must be seen to be meeting them halfway if talks are to be concluded successfully by Monday's deadline. Otherwise IBEC will face the risk of being blamed for their collapse.
Sources close to the talks suggest that it will take increases of around 15 per cent in national pay rounds, plus scope for significant local gain-sharing deals, to produce a package which trade union leaders could sell to members. With the tax and other measures outlined above, this would ensure low-paid workers increases of about 20 per cent in take-home pay. This would still leave the way open for stronger groups to make similar gains through enterprise level deals.