Influences on Irish Industrial Relations Over the Last 30 Years

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Recommended: The economic and policy development of Ireland

1. 0 Intoduction

Farelly (2012) states in the “Economic Context” section on Eurofound.ie that Ireland is a small, open economy that depends heavily on foreign direct investment from foreign multinationals. Due to Ireland’s low corporation tax and it’s English speaking workforce, it attracts these multinationals. In the 1990’s, Ireland experienced a boom in its economy, commonly known as the “Celtic Tiger”, with this, came high levels of employment growth and many new jobs were created. Unfortunately, this did not last, because in 2008 there was a major economic downturn which caused a rapid increase of unemployment which in turn, led to very high levels of emigration to places such as Australia. Emigration meant money leaving the Irish economy, which is also known as leakages. Farelly (2012) writes that there was a huge number of job losses since 2008, and unemployment rose to 14.5% in 2011 as a result of the recession. Due to this, Ireland earned a negative image which did not encourage any foreign direct investment. LRC (n.d.) explain that due to things such as salary cuts and redundancies as employers try their best in order to cut costs, employees have found their livelihood under threat and therefore the industrial relations have become strained. The Labour Relations Commission has found itself handling increased numbers of referrals to do with pay and redundancies with its Conciliation Service. In this essay, the changes that have effected industrial relations law, collective bargaining, trade unions and the Labour Court in the past 30 years will be discussed.

2.0 Industrial Relations Law

2.1 Industrial Relations Act 1990

According to LRC (n.d.) in the 1970’s, the Irish Industrial Relations saw frequent disputes and st...

... middle of paper ...

...nd the economic crisis: where now? Retrieved April 2, 2014 from:

http://www.oireachtas.ie/parliament/media/housesoftheoireachtas/libraryresearch/spotlights/spotTradeunion040611_143334.pdf

• ENTEMP. (n.d.) Industrial Relations Act 1990. Retrieved April 2, 2014 from:

http://www.djei.ie/publications/employment/2002/industrialrelationsguide.pdf

• GUESTPOST. (2013) Reform of Law must protect Human Right to Collective Bargaining. Retrieved April 2, 2014 from:

http://humanrights.ie/constitution-of-ireland/reform-of-law-must-protect-human-right-to-collective-bargaining/

• Farrelly,R. (n.d.). Ireland: Industrial relations profile. Retrieved April 4, 2014 from :

www.eurofound.europa.eu/eiro/country/ireland.pdf

• LRC. (2010). Industrial Relations in Ireland. Retrieved April 6, 2014 from:

http://www.business2000.ie/pdf/pdf_13/lrc_13th_ed.pdf

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