{"id":279096,"date":"2026-01-11T09:49:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T09:49:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/279096\/"},"modified":"2026-01-11T09:49:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T09:49:07","slug":"industrial-relations-agencies-annoyed-at-being-kept-in-dark-on-collective-bargaining-plan-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/279096\/","title":{"rendered":"Industrial relations agencies annoyed at being kept in dark on collective bargaining plan \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Workplace Relations Commission<\/a> (WRC) and the Labour Court<\/a> \u2013 two key State agencies involved in dealing with industrial relations \u2013 expressed strong concern about a lack of engagement before the Government launched its new plan on collective bargaining rights.<\/p>\n

Minister for Enterprise Peter Burke<\/a> announced a new strategy in early November to promote and protect collective bargaining<\/a> between employers and unions.<\/p>\n

The plan was drawn up by the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment<\/a> in collaboration with the Irish Congress of Trade Unions<\/a> (Ictu) and employers\u2019 group Ibec<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The publication of the plan on November 5th featured comments from Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin<\/a>, Mr Burke and Minister of State for Employment and Small Business Alan Dillon<\/a>.<\/p>\n

However, in complaints to the department, the Labour Court and the WRC said they had not been told in advance about the launch and had only learned about it in the media.<\/p>\n

The Labour Court said unions and employer representatives had been given a draft of the plan some time earlier and given notice about the announcement.<\/p>\n

The department said it had to consider a number of issues including Cabinet confidentiality and \u201cresponsibilities to the social partners who prepared the plan with us\u201d.<\/p>\n

The WRC told the department it had not had \u201cany foresight into the fact that this significantly important action plan was being published\u201d.<\/p>\n

In an email to the department\u2019s secretary general, Declan Hughes, on the day the plan was published the WRC\u2019s chief executive, Audrey Cahill, said the \u201clack of engagement, insight, consultation and communication\u201d with her organisation about the plan presented a \u201cchallenge\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first time any of us have seen the plan and the commitments set out on behalf of the WRC is when we printed it on arrival to the office this morning,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe first we knew of the launch was through the media this morning the same as every other member of the public.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe functions of the director general are clearly set out in section 14 of the Workplace Relations Act 2015 and are not ambiguous in terms of my role to manage and control the business of the Commission. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is disconcerting that I would be excluded in the way that I have been in this instance but be expected to deliver the plan to a high standard.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be my view that this entire matter raises serious questions for us in relation to risk and governance. Notwithstanding the risk to my own professional integrity where I am not well read into matters as important as this when facing my stakeholders on a day-to-day basis.\u201d <\/p>\n

She said the WRC intended to play its full part in supporting the action plan. <\/p>\n

Labour Court chairperson Louise O\u2019Donnell told Mr Hughes in a separate letter how it was disappointing the court only became aware of the plan\u2019s launch through the media, \u201cparticularly in circumstances where we attended a management board meeting two days ago [and] a number of the court\u2019s slides were in respect of collective bargaining\u201d.<\/p>\n

She said the Labour Court was included in the plan under several headings in the report, but its input was only sought in respect of one area, technical assessors.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s difficult to see how this ties in with the department\u2019s strategic plan and the commitment to support the work of the court,\u201d Ms O\u2019Donnell said. <\/p>\n

The approach suggested the department did not see the Labour Court as a stakeholder in the industrial relations environment, she said.<\/p>\n

Ms O\u2019Donnell said she understood that other stakeholders had received drafts of the plan \u201csome time ago\u201d and were given a \u201cheads up\u201d about the announcement.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s unfortunate that the same courtesy could not have been extended to the court,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

In reply to Ms O\u2019Donnell and to Ms Cahill, Mr Hughes said: \u201cThe timing of Government decisions is not exact, and we are required to balance a number of important objectives including Cabinet confidentiality, the needs of our Ministers and our responsibilities to the social partners who prepared the plan with us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) and the Labour Court \u2013 two key State agencies involved in dealing with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73963,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[111050,9,10,61384,18,13,14,6,18470,19,17,27845,11019,11,12,15,16,5765,5,4772,7,8,81],"class_list":{"0":"post-279096","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-alan-dillon","9":"tag-breaking-news","10":"tag-breakingnews","11":"tag-department-of-enterprise-trade-and-employment","12":"tag-eire","13":"tag-featured-news","14":"tag-featurednews","15":"tag-headlines","16":"tag-ibec","17":"tag-ie","18":"tag-ireland","19":"tag-irish-congress-of-trade-unions-ictu","20":"tag-labour-court","21":"tag-latest-news","22":"tag-latestnews","23":"tag-main-news","24":"tag-mainnews","25":"tag-micheal-martin","26":"tag-news","27":"tag-peter-burke","28":"tag-top-stories","29":"tag-topstories","30":"tag-workplace-relations-commission"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115875844124677460","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279096\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}