The contentious issue of 'social dumping' and outsourcing has gained notable public prominence in Ireland in recent months, given a bitter conflict generated by a seemingly intractable dispute between Irish Ferries and trade unions, which has now become a European dispute, not just an Irish one
The Minister for Labour Affairs formally published the Employees (Provision of Information and Consultation) Bill 2005 [1] at the end of July 2005. The Bill sets out minimum employee rights to information and consultation, seeking to transpose the 2002 EU information and consultation Directive (2002
The Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) held its two-yearly delegate conference in Belfast in late June 2005. The conference addressed 'quality of life' issues, such as childcare provision and 'caring' matters generally. However, the underlying message emanating from the event is that the scene is
The current government is a coalition between the majority centrist Fianna Fail party and the small right-of-centre Progressive Democrats (PDs). This coalition government has been in power since June 1997, and was re-elected at a general election in May 2002. Bertie Ahern has been Prime Minister
The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) / European Association for Personnel Management (EAPM) held a joint conference, entitled 'European workplace of the future - flexible and competitive', in Dublin on 11-13 May 2005. Ireland was chosen as the location for the event because of
The Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) represents approximately 31,000 nurses. The message to emerge from its annual conference in early May 2005 is that the leadership of the INO want to 'challenge the assumption that benchmarking and social partnership'- at least in its present guise - 'is the only
In recent years, labour market developments have altered the demand for labour. Increasingly, employers are looking for adaptable workers, with more 'transversal' and 'relational' competences. The nature of skills required to be considered efficient in a job has thus evolved. In this situation
It is widely accepted by policy-makers and practitioners that the key to Ireland’s future economic and social prosperity lies in moving to a 'knowledge economy' based on high value-added and high-skilled activities, which, in turn, requires greater innovation at workplace level. However, much
An ongoing review of the role of the Labour Inspectorate- which is responsible for ensuring that employers comply with employment legislation - has coincided with recent allegations of exploitation of migrant workers at firms such as Gama Construction and Irish Ferries, which have attracted
There is considerable debate in Ireland at the moment about just how accurate it is to describe the industrial relations system as 'voluntarist', given the exponential increase in labour law in recent years (IE0406203F [1] and IE0412203F [2]). Under the traditional voluntarist model of Irish