Stratis Submission to the Public Consultation on Irelands Action Plan to Promote Collective Bargaining – May 2025

250512 Final Stratis Reply to Consultation-Action Plan re CB Promotion .pdf

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Stratis has made a comprehensive submission as part of the Public Consultation on the Action Plan to Promote Collective Bargaining, undertaken by the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment.

Key points addressed include but are not limited to:

• Capacity Building - Support for capacity building on collective bargaining, effective communications, consensus-based decision making and effective dispute resolution. Separate training may be needed for parties where workplace relationships are adversarial. Approved programmes could be supported from the National Training Fund by up to a level of two thirds of the cost structured according to Company size.

• Good Faith Engagement - Concern is expressed that the introduction of ‘good faith engagement’ (GFE) as proposed by the LEEF Review Group Report on Collective Bargaining in 2022, would represent a fundamental change to our IR system and in our view is best articulated by way of non-statutory guidance to the parties through the development of a voluntary code of practice for this purpose, developed with the support of the WRC.  Ultimately, an employer that applies a market competitive remuneration policy (and progressive HR practices) should be permitted to apply for an exemption from any proposed GFE obligations. We also argue for clear conditionality would need to apply if GFE is introduced. The desire to promote collective bargaining is predicated on the assumption that collective bargaining is the only means through which employees can secure fair terms and conditions of employment. This suggests that trade unions wish to continue to practice ‘voluntarism’ in areas where they are strongest and create a highly regulated space in areas of the private sector where employers could be compelled to engage in collective bargaining.

• Role of Trade Unions - The important role and function of trade unions in society and through voluntary collective bargaining at enterprise level is fully acknowledged by Stratis. Campaigns championing ‘decent work,’ on tackling the housing crisis, childcare issues and climate change are a few stand out examples of the contribution and influence of organised labour. There are also many examples of enduring relationships between individual employers and unions fashioned through voluntarily agreed collective bargaining arrangements. However, our system of industrial relations and employment regulation must respect the wide diversity of models of engagement that apply across Irish business.

• New Realities since 2022 - The LEEF Recommendations on the introduction of GFE, were framed in the absence of the current significant and pending threat to the Irish economic model because of the dramatic changes to the international trading arrangements and increases in tariffs in 2025. Given the importance of FDI investment and of our trading relationships to many indigenous exporters, at a time when these relationships and even our potential attractiveness as a location for investment is under scrutiny if not threatened, as a result of uncertainty in the trading relationships between the US, and Ireland as part of the EU, it would be reckless to introduce compulsions to mandate employers to enter into ‘good faith’ engagement or to prioritise collective bargaining arrangements over other forms of engagement at enterprise level.

• Voluntarism and Wider Reform - Consistent with the principles established by the ILO, collective bargaining should be carried out voluntarily, freely and in good faith. The parties should be free to decide if they wish to engage in bargaining, or not, and there should be no interference from the authorities in their decisions to do so. Voluntarism which has served all sides of industry well over the years, cannot end for one side of industry or just in the private sector. Any consideration of an action plan to ‘promote’ collective bargaining, should only be addressed in the context of the significant opportunity and need to address the overdue potential for industrial relations reform concerning how our dispute resolution bodies function and how trade disputes are regulated as part of a balanced approach. Stratis believes that this would show to employers, that the Government in producing any action plan to promote collective bargaining is keen to ensure a balanced outcome which will ensure that our IR system is reflective of the modern needs of employers and workers. The submission articulates a range of examples of key reforms which are urgent and overdue. We cannot have changes being considered to collective bargaining, to its ‘promotion’ or to trade union recognition which might increase workers’ rights or the level of compulsion on employers in the private sector and to have these bolted on to an otherwise ‘voluntarist’ IR system. If ‘Good Faith Engagement’ (GFE) is legislated for it will bring the much valued and respected tradition of ‘voluntarism’ to an end in Irish industrial relations as it will impose a legal obligation on the employer to engage. Stratis considers it is also reasonable to predict, that as GFE, will not satisfy the trade union movements long held ambitions for enhanced collective bargaining rights and that ultimately significant parts of the trade union movement will cast GFE aside for its ‘failure to deliver’ and will campaign to deliver ‘good faith bargaining’ or something similar.

• Protection Measures - On the issue of measures to protect union members and representatives from the risk of victimisation, discrimination or even unfair dismissal, Stratis argues that Ireland has an extremely robust framework of legislation and codes of practice to ensure that the protection principles espoused in the European Convention on Human Rights are protected. These include comprehensive measures and protections against acts which could be calculated to cause the dismissal or otherwise prejudice a worker by reason of participation in union activities. These are already significant and dissuasive of noncompliance. Importantly, there have been very few cases pursued by trade unions under the codes of practice for alleged employer victimisation or in relation to unfair dismissal related to trade union membership or activity, which suggests that the rhetoric of the need for additional protection is unfounded. 

• ‘Access’ - Efforts to introduce compulsory measures on access would be fiercely resisted by employers and especially so, where it is not their practice to engage in voluntary collective bargaining. Allowing for ‘access’ to the workplace, in the absence of voluntary collective bargaining having already been freely established and by agreement, in the case of an employer who has not given permission, would represent a serious punitive challenge to the private property rights of Employers over their business interests. It would also seriously undermine the voluntary nature of collective bargaining as set out under ILO Convention 98. 

If you would like to talk about any of the above issues, please get in touch with any of our Partners.

Brendan McGinty | Managing Partner

Stratis Consulting

‘Strategic Employment Relations’

E: brendan.mcginty@stratis.ie 

M: +353 (0) 87 2433038      

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Disclaimer: The information in this article is for general guidance only and does not constitute legal or specific case advice.  The answers to specific situations will vary depending on the circumstances of each case. This is not a substitute for specific professional advice relevant to individual circumstances facing your business.