REPRESENTATIVES of the big unions and the employers’ federation OEV meet again today to continue discussions about measures that could be taken to help businesses. At the first meeting of the two sides on Monday, OEV presented its proposals for helping struggling sectors of the economy survive the recession without staff lay-offs. These included a two-year freeze of CoLA and pay rises, a return to the 40-hour working week as well as suspension of employer contributions to staff provident funds.
Today the union bosses are expected to give their response, which we suspect will take the form of counter-proposals. SEK boss made it clear on morning radio show however, that the proposed freeze on CoLA was a red line for the unions. This would suggest, with inflation at 4.2 per cent in December that the private sector employees who are entitled to CoLA would be guaranteed a small pay rise in January. However, this was the only issue on which he took a hard line, suggesting that the union side may be more amenable to the other proposals.
Then again, nobody could rule out the possibility of the union bosses digging in their heels and making a big issue of defending the rights and conquests of the working people. In this case, most of the proposals would still be implemented by businesses, as has been happening for the last two to three years, and the unions would not be able to do anything about it. A pay freeze has been imposed on most private businesses, by economic conditions, employees have accepted it and the unions have said and done nothing, because they know it is the only way to save jobs.
In a sense, the employers’ proposals are offering the unions an opportunity to maintain some kind of order in industrial relations by being party to the inevitable changes that will take place in the labour market. This would be better than allowing industrial relations to slip into anarchy, a development that cannot be prevented in times of recession and high unemployment and during which unions lose their bargaining power.
Union bosses have a stark choice to make today. They could adopt a constructive role and agree to proposals designed to help companies and thus protect jobs, or they could resort to the familiar, militant rhetoric of the past that would accelerate unemployment. Perhaps the difficult time will make them see sense and herald a new era in which unions and employers bury the confrontational approach to industrial relations and work together for everyone’s benefit.
