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Volume 1 (1999/2000)
Issue
1 (March 1999)
Issue
2 (Nov. 1999)
Issue 3 (Dec. 1999)
Issue 4 (Feb. 2000)
Issue 5 (March 2000)
Issue 6 (April 2000)
Issue
7 (May 2000)
Volume 2 (2000/2001)
Issue 1 (Sept. 2000)
Issue 2 (Oct. 2000)
Issue 3 (Jan. 2001)
Issue 4 (March 2001)
Issue 5 (April 2001)
Issue 6 (May 2001)
Volume 3 (2001)
Issue 1 (Sept. 2001)
Issue 2 (Nov. 2001)
Categories
Sport: 1
2 3
Lifestyles: 1 2
3
Commentary: 1 2
3
Review: 1 2
3
Writing: 1 2
3
Event: 1 2
3
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Patrick Nulty
Riversdale CC
In recent years national collective bargaining or 'Social
Partnership' as it more commonly referred to has been an integral part
of the economic and industrial relations policy of successive Irish governments.
On the surface such a system has contributed to the current economic boom
however, as practised in Ireland, it has also had a number of undesirable
and negative results for all participants and for society as a whole.
Despite its noble intentions social partnership helps to
undermine parliamentary democracy. It takes power from public representatives
and places it into the hands of sectional interests in society. One of
the paradoxical outcomes of social partnership for the Trade Union movement
is that, while its approval is central to any wage agreement, the results
an agreement effectively removes from workers their key power, the right
to strike. The function of all Trade Unions in both the public and private
sector is to improve the pay and conditions of their members. While worker's
or employer's organisations should have no direct say in formulating Ireland's
economic policies, both should be free to comment on the economy without
being constrained by the fear of damaging social partnership.
Social partnership attempts to draw two groups with conflicting
and opposite interests (unions and employers) into an agreement which
in an inflationary economy has very few real benefits for workers. Public
sector pay is an intensely political issue and as such should be a matter
for intense political debate. It is the role of political parties to place
before the people alternative attitudes to public sector pay. Generally,
public servants like teachers, nurses and gardai represent the selfless
and egalitarian values of a society and it should be up to society to
show their appreciation or otherwise for these people in the type of government
they elect. The rates of pay for many of these occupations are very poor
considering their value in society and social partnership provides a convenient
excuse for governments to maintain these rates on a long term basis.
Essentially social partnership is a flawed concept because
it misunderstands the different roles interest groups in society play.
Regardless of the merits of individual cases it is up to government to
implement economic policies in accordance with their election pledges
and to take full responsibility for these policies. The best way to strengthen
the democratic process is to broaden political debate and give the electorate
real choice about the direction of society. Unfortunately social partnership
attempts to create an artificial consensus between competing interests,
which only leads to a stifling of genuine political debate, and as such
undermines the fundamental nature of our democracy.
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