Company bargaining in Ireland: A story of successful adaptation for trade unions.
Dr Valentina Paolucci (Maynooth Business School) conducted a comparative study funded by the EU Commission and examining the postures of trade unions and employers towards company level bargaining. She was the principal investigator in Ireland.
Her research shows that Irish trade unions have no nostalgia for the social partnership era. Union leaders have interpreted company level bargaining as an opportunity to reconnect with members and build organisational capacity through skilled activists and expert negotiators. All trade unions are campaigning to introduce a ‘right to bargain’ into legislation. The outcomes of decentralised bargaining are positive where employers recognise and engage with the unions, but the share of employers who choose not to remains high in Ireland and has been increasing during recent decades.
The work of Dr Paolucci features in chapter 4 and 7 of a newly launched book edited by Professor Frank Tros (University of Amsterdam), and can be accessed at the following link: Pathways in Decentralised Collective Bargaining in Europe | Amsterdam University Press (aup.nl). Whereas to read the full Irish report, visit the following website https://aias-hsi.uva.nl/en/projects-a-z/codebar/videos/videos.html