Ms Maeve McElwee:

The position that IBEC has always had around engagement has been that the most productive and best engagement will always be as close to the level of the organisation as possible, whether it is around pay and conditions or disputes that arise. If those issues can be settled at local level and you can reach agreement with the people you are working with day in, day out, understand their needs and try to meet them, balanced with what the organisation requires, that, in many ways, is what has been most effective. There are different traditions within our voluntarist industrial relations framework and some aspects have worked very well through direct engagement and others have worked very well through collective trade union representation. We engage equally with both. We have always understood the importance of both traditions and what they bring to our industrial relations environment.