TRADE UNION LEADERS and their business counterparts met with the Taoiseach today in the Labour Employer Economic Forum gathering.

Following the meeting, Owen Reidy, the general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Union (Ictu), told reporters there would more meetings to secure measures to support workers in the next four to six weeks.

He said: “What we want to see is a process where Government engages with us over the coming weeks on fundamental issues that will protect workers in this cost-of-living crisis, some permanent, some temporary, and they need to be reviewed, because we think it’s going to get worse before it gets better.”

However, he warned: “If Government don’t listen to organised labor at this time, with this crisis, particularly after what happened last week, our point has been strike action is probably inevitable as a result of that.”

The government said in a statement after the meeting that the parties agreed to meet again in a few weeks. 

“In light of recent events, the meeting reaffirmed the importance of dialogue taking place with established representative groups such as employer organisations and trade unions and through Forums such as the LEEF,” the statements said. 

“It was agreed that an intensive process of dialogue under LEEF would take place on current challenges to energy security and affordability, and challenges to broader economic resilience.”

Reidy has warned that the government’s €500m fuel package to quell protests by farmers, agricultural contractors and hauliers needs to be matched by significant efforts for its members.

“We have 600,000 members saying to their unions where is a bespoke package for us,” Reidy told The Journal ahead of today’s meeting.

Overall, he claimed that the government’s measures have had the impact of “over-indulging and infantilising” business and that more was needed for union members who operate through the “correct channels”.

Ictu looked for today’s meeting to discuss the impact of rising prices on workers.

It also has an eye on the current public sector pay deal that is due to expire at the end of June, and negotiations on a successor agreement are expected to begin in the coming weeks.

Government sources have disputed the claims by union chiefs that the measures announced last weekend were for one sector only, pointing to universal measures that will ease the cost of petrol and diesel.

These sources say they are economy wide measures which everyone benefits from.

Ictu’s aims

Reidy said the union wants the government to consider reworking tax bands for workers and a temporary 1% reduction in the top rate of Vat which he said has been costed at €631 million.

Reidy said that mirrors the amount provided in the last Budget via a cut in Vat for hospitality, which the union body has called for to be abandoned.

The union leader added that the government should make a declaration that workers who can work remotely and want to should be facilitated in doing this by employers during the energy crisis.

Ictu also wants to see efforts made at making public transport services more affordable.

“If we don’t get progress on some of those decisions we’ll have to frontload the pay talks instead and look for more from that,” Reidy said.

With reporting by Christina Finn and Press Association