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Social partnership[1] (Irish: Pairtíocht sóisialta) is the term used for the tripartite, triennial national pay agreements reached in Ireland.
The process was initiated in 1987, following a period of high inflation and weak economic growth which led to increased emigration and unsustainable government borrowing and national debt. Strike and wage moderation were important outcomes of the agreements, and this has been seen as a significant contributor to the 'Celtic Tiger' phenomenon. Prior to this, agreement bargaining had been on a local level since 1981; in the previous decade national employer-union deals and 'National Understandings' were the norm, but came under increased pressure.
The corporatist 'social partnership' agreements are agreed between the Government, the main employer groups Irish Business and Employers Confederation (IBEC) and the Construction Industry Federation (CIF) and the trade unions (members of the Irish Congress of Trades Unions). Since 1997, voluntary/community organisations have taken part in the general policy discussions but not in the key wage bargaining element. The corporatist core has been a trade-off of modest wage increases in exchange for a lighter income tax burden. There are also sectoral reforms negotiated and public service pay reviews under the rubric of 'benchmarking' with private sector pay scales.
- ^ Note: This is a rather limited account of the term 'social partnership', a term which is also widely used to describe the underpinnings of the European Union's approach to industrial relations. The ILO view social partnership as "all types of negotiation, consultation or simply exchange of information between, or among, representatives of governments, employers and workers, on issues of common interest relating to economic and social policy"