The Republic's largest union, SIPTU, is expected to endorse the proposals of the High-Level Group on Trade Union Recognition when it meets later today. The union's president, Mr Jimmy Somers, one of the main architects of the agreement, said yesterday that when it became law SIPTU would be using its provisions to pursue its year-old pay claim for baggage-handlers at Ryanair.
It was a dispute over union recognition at Ryanair which resulted in the closure of Dublin Airport last March. So far, the company has refused to meet with SIPTU and it has referred the findings of a Government inquiry into the airport strike to the High Court.
Mr Somers described the group's proposals, which involve legislation allowing the Labour Court to intervene in certain disputes and impose settlements on recalcitrant employers, as "a very significant development".
"It is something we called for at the very height of the Ryanair dispute because the company was refusing to allow employees professional representation by their union.
"It means that grievances like those of the Ryanair baggage-handlers can be dealt with to finality. This type of procedure was lacking in the Ryanair dispute. We had the Taoiseach and the Tanaiste literally down on their knees to one individual at the time. It is important that that situation never arises again."
Asked if SIPTU would invoke the new procedures, once they become law, against Ryanair, Mr Somers said: "Obviously we will."
SIPTU is likely to use the procedures with foreign-based companies as well as indigenous firms to secure union recognition. "At the moment all we can offer to workers where a firm refuses to negotiate with us is a strike and the possibility of closure. That is not an attractive prospect."
It was concerns by non-union, US-based international companies which led the Irish Business and Employers Confederation (IBEC), the IDA and the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment to resist giving extra powers to the Labour Court. However, last year's dispute at Ryanair made it inevitable that the unions would settle for nothing less.
After the final meeting of the high-level group last week, the IBEC director, Mr Turlough O'Sullivan, whose members include many large US companies, said that employers would have preferred to keep to a purely voluntary approach.
However, they were satisfied with the proposals as these allowed for "finality" to the dispute process and did not make trade union recognition mandatory. They also allowed for employees to opt for alternative forms of representation to a trade union.
He said that in return for the extra powers granted to the Labour Court the unions had agreed to negotiate codes of practice in disputes affecting the emergency services.