Three industrial disputes were resolved before the EU bigwigs got here. Coincidence?

IF ANYONE TUNED out from the news from Tuesday evening to early Wednesday morning, they may have been surprised to see that the government had successfully ended not one but two industrial disputes. 

First, Jim O’Callaghan came to an agreement with the Law Society regarding changes to the criminal legal aid scheme.

Then, weary public sector union representatives emerged from the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) in the wee hours of Wednesday morning, having concluded talks at 3.30am, and announced an agreement had been reached. It meant Thursday’s planned strike would not go ahead.

On Monday night, the Garda Representative Association (GRA) cancelled its own planned industrial action that was to start on Tuesday after talks with the Garda Commissioner. 

It’s understood that issues around pay and overtime have been put on ice, rather than wholly solved, but the GRA suspended the action for the EU summits this week anyway.

So three disputes, all resolved or largely resolved over a couple of nights. 

All in all a success for the government, public sector workers and solicitors, who have each endured months of dispute and talks. It also curiously coincided with the arrival of dozens of world leaders for two massive EU summits. 

Kieran Mulvey, arguably Ireland’s best-known industrial relations mediator and previously the director general of the WRC, told The Journal that the simultaneous resolution of the public sector pay dispute and the criminal legal aid disagreement is likely coincidental.

That said, he noted that the scheduled strike day would have given negotiations momentum.

“Obviously a potential strike date concentrates the minds wonderfully,” Mulvey said. 

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Figures released over the weekend of what was on the table would perhaps have stymied public support for unions proceeding with another strike, he added, as many workers in the private sector do not have the same security in terms of pensions and make less per annum.

It was generally accepted that both sides of the public sector pay dispute would have to come to some form of agreement by Wednesday morning, giving unions enough time to call off the strike and convey the terms of the proposal to their members.

The threat of further strike action, the first of which on 14 October proved disruptive nationally, had to be allayed by the government – but there were also fears in unions that once the strike had come and gone they would lose leverage.

Asked by The Journal whether an agreement would have been made had it not been for the threat of strike action clashing with the summit, Public Expenditure Minister Jack Chambers said that talks had advanced significantly over the weekend.

“I think when you’re at that point, and that’s understood on all sides, you’re able to conclude the deal,” Chambers said on Wednesday.

“I know there’s a lot of focus on the EPC, but ultimately, a lot of people have vital appointments and rely on vital services, and that’s a much bigger implication for society than what the perception is of a strike on the day of the EPC.”

On the coinciding of the resolution of the public sector pay dispute, the criminal legal aid dispute, and the pausing of garda industrial action in time for the summits, Chambers said: “I think it’s more coincidental than connected.”

Mulvey noted that unions had moved the proposed day of strike from Wednesday to Thursday, when it would have clashed with the summit and caused further disruption to a city upended with road closures and a heavy garda presence.

“You spend days mooching around between the parties, trying to see where they are, how far they can come, the whole lot, and then suddenly, there is a movement because people are beginning to run out of time,” he explained.

Once the parameters around the major disputes, like the issue of pay, have been established, it’s much easier to work through the more minor issues and close a deal, he said.

Ballot

The 19 unions involved in the deal will ballot their members to see if the agreement will be carried – and it is almost certain that it will be passed through. But some union members, and particularly second-level teaching unions, have raised concerns over the proposed deal.

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“There are always some unions, no matter what you give them, or what you would advise achieving in these negotiations, who never agree to anything,” Mulvey said.

He said he wouldn’t “concentrate too much energy on them”, although he noted that concerns around local bargaining are a “fair point”.

Local bargaining allows trade unions to negotiate custom pay adjustments, anomalies or structural issues in local workplaces.

Teaching unions say half of the pay packet set aside for local bargaining has been pushed out beyond the timeframe of the new pay agreement. There are also some outstanding issues around local bargaining from the previous agreement.

“Certainly there was a grievance there at the beginning of the talks that some of these agreements had not been implemented,” Mulvey said, “and that would have created a bit of a toxic atmosphere and probably a negative attitude towards the local bargaining.”

There are lessons to be learned in the handling of this dispute, he said, the largest being that talks should begin well in advance of the expiring of an active agreement.

This agreement, when accepted by unions, will remain in place in 2029 – an election year, which Mulvey said will be “interesting”.

The implementation of this deal will allow for better budget management by the government, giving them certainty in the upcoming budgets on what is to be allocated for increases in public sector pay.

“People shouldn’t actually underestimate the benefit of industrial peace, as we’ve seen on the last strike,” Mulvey said.

“People take things for granted. It’s only when you have a strike, you realise the essential nature of some of these services and how disruptive and strength can be. So I think that you know people have to value that we’ve had an extraordinary period of industrial peace.”