Ms Maeve McElwee:

Unfortunately, one of the key issues on which IBEC has been engaging with Government has been access to the National Training Fund. It is a real disappointment that we did not manage to get access to the National Training Fund to which employers are contributing very substantially. It would be useful to be able to implement some training on collective bargaining, what that means, how companies should engage and how employees engage. On all sides it can only be to the advantage of implementing the directive that people are upskilled in this area. It is important to point out that we have a very professional HR section within our business communities. Even where direct engagement takes place, in many different organisations that is already very professional, highly engaged direct engagement. In many of those sectors it results in the types of pay and terms of conditions that are significantly above average. Even where we do not have a tradition of collective bargaining in some sectors, it is not to say that there is no engagement with workers on their terms and conditions and no consideration of what is happening at a broader level than just the level of the workplace in terms of putting those very attractive terms and conditions in place.