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Developing Positive Employment Relations pp 101–123Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Workplace Partnership in Ireland: Irreconcilable Tensions Between an ‘Irish Third Way’ of Voluntary Mutuality and Neoliberalism

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Abstract

This chapter provides an overview of the national institutional context and state policies in promoting voluntary workplace partnership in the Republic of Ireland. The chapter draws on analysis from Dobbins and Dundon (2015). Workplace partnership is distinct from national-level social pacts in that in the former, it is claimed by advocates that participants actively engage in social dialogue leading to more informed decision-making for the good of all stakeholders at organizational level. In contrast, social partnership at national level comprised consensus-seeking pacts between government, employers and trade unions, whereby the parties engaged in centralized bargaining over key macroeconomic and social issues. Ireland has promoted national-level social partnership from 1987 until its collapse in 2009, with a distinct objective of diffusing collaborative partnership to enterprise level. The two levels—national and workplace—are not mutually exclusive and interlink in important ways. National policy and institutions shape the context in which workplace-level cooperative arrangements are enacted and played out. Tripartite bargained consensus at a national level—involving government, employers and unions as the major ‘partners’—was seen as a precursor to the efficacy of workplace-level partnerships.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The seven Irish national partnership agreements are as follows: 1987, Programme for National Recovery (PNR); 1991, Programme for Economic and Social Progress (PESP); 1994, Programme for Competitiveness and Work (PCW); 1997, Partnership 2000; 1999, Programme for Prosperity and Fairness (PP&F); 2001, Sustaining Progress; 2006–2016, Towards 2016. In 2010, a public sector–only worker agreement was negotiated, the Public Service Agreement 2010–2014 (otherwise known as the Croke Park Agreement).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Bangor Business School, University of Bangor, Bangor, UK

    Tony Dobbins & Tony Dundon

Authors
  1. Tony Dobbins
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  2. Tony Dundon
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Newcastle University Business School, Newcastle University, Newcastle Upon Tyne, United Kingdom

    Stewart Johnstone

  2. Griffith University, Nathan, Queensland, Australia

    Adrian Wilkinson

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© 2016 The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s)

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Dobbins, T., Dundon, T. (2016). Workplace Partnership in Ireland: Irreconcilable Tensions Between an ‘Irish Third Way’ of Voluntary Mutuality and Neoliberalism. In: Johnstone, S., Wilkinson, A. (eds) Developing Positive Employment Relations. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-42772-4_5

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