PAY TERMS of the draft national agreement negotiated by the social partners will please few people. On one hand, they will be regarded as excessively generous; on the other, as inadequate and miserly.
But because the process requires concession and restraint from both employers and workers, it is probably the best deal that could have been achieved in the current circumstances. If adopted, it will inject much-needed confidence and certainty into the economy at a time when world markets are in turmoil. And, hopefully, it will establish a sound platform for recovery when the financial tsunami passes.
Social partnership is one of the pillars on which Ireland's economic success was founded 21 years ago. It contains flaws. A "one size fits all" approach has been rightly criticised, as has its control over key policy decisions. But it has brought certainty to employers in respect of wage costs and encouraged them to plan ahead. It has encouraged foreign investment and minimised the incidence of industrial strife. It has facilitated social progress. And, since its inception, an extra million people have found work in this State.
When negotiations between the social partners collapsed last month, Taoiseach Brian Cowen was criticised for failing to deliver an agreement. Disparaging comparisons, naturally, were made in relation to the negotiating skills of his predecessor. Now, it is only fitting that Mr Cowen should receive credit for bringing the parties together. His success is likely to enthuse the Fianna Fáil party and encourage his Ministers to take decisive action in scaling back Government spending in next month's budget. In that process, the interests of the least well off must be protected.
The draft agreement envisages pay pauses of differing lengths for private and public sectors workers. Wage increases will amount to less than 3.5 per cent on an annualised basis. Lower paid workers will get an additional 0.5 per cent. Legislation to strengthen collective bargaining rights and regulate the use of agency workers has been promised to trade unions. And the terms of "ability to pay" regulations will be relaxed for employers.
In a world recession where Government finances stagnate and unemployment rises towards a quarter of a million, it would have been, in the words of the general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, David Begg, "a terrible own-goal" if the social partners had failed to negotiate an agreement. They must now sell the terms of that draft agreement to their members. It should not be that difficult.
Just open up The Irish Times every morning, listen to the overnight developments on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, and stalwarts of the US financial establishment have dissolved. These are uncertain times: not just for bankers and insurance companies but for the jobs of ordinary people. This draft agreement offers an opportunity to protect the economic and social progress that has been made. It is the closest the social partners could have got to a reality check.