Social Dialogue and a New Democratic Social Contract

Posted on Monday, 7 December 2020
Image
labour force
Body

Patricia King (ICTU) outlined what issues a new Social Contract should address and how a new social dialogue could support it's implementation at our Social Policy Conference 2020.  Below is an extract from her paper.

Covid-19 has caused us to think about many things that previously we may never really have considered: the importance of good public services; the need for a social security system that provides real security in the face of sickness and unemployment; and about concepts such as inter-dependence and solidarity.  It has led us to reassess what we mean by ‘essentially work’; who really are the ‘essential workers’; and is it right that many of them are treated the way they are.And it has fundamentally changed the relationship between business and the state.

There is no doubt that a New Social Contract is needed.

The New Social Contract that Congress would like to achieve is set out in our ‘No Going Back’ policy document published in June.

For us, its principal components would include:

  • An incomes-related social security system, that resolves in the first instance the issues around sick pay and pensions
  • A universal, single-tier health system
  • An investment programme in public housing that ensures that everyone who needs a home has one, by right
  • A system of early years’ care and education that provides high-quality, affordable services
  • A Just Transition towards a sustainable green economy

And a new relationship between workers, employers and the state that remedies the scourges of low pay and precarious work practices, and that guarantees a living wage and decent work for every worker.

We believe it is possible to achieve such a contract over the coming years.

And we believe that social dialogue is central to agreeing such a contract.

In our view, agreeing a New Social Contract must involve all those who have a stake in the outcomes of economic and social policies. And the organisations that represent them must have the opportunity to shape those policies.

In our view, the National Economic and Social Council provides an excellent forum for developing in-depth policies on these matters. Its role could and should be enhanced in order to strengthen engagement with and between all sectors of society and to create new models of engagement. 

In our No Going Back document in June, we said that a deeper engagement with unions has to be part of a broader, more inclusive dialogue and engagement with civil society, as well as more participatory decision-making and democratic reform at all levels.

A New Social Contract has to be a democratic social contract in the sense of having broad support. We believe that such a contract is capable of addressing the many challenging facing Irish society and the Irish economy. We in the Irish trade union movement are willing to play our part in agreeing such a contract.

The full paper is available to download here. 

×
This website uses cookies
This website uses cookies to improve user experience. By using our website you consent to all cookies in accordance with our Cookie Policy. Read more
Save & Close
Accept all
Decline all
Show details Hide details
Cookie declaration
About cookies
Strictly necessary
Performance
Targeting
Strictly necessary cookies allow core website functionality such as user login and account management. The website cannot be used properly without strictly necessary cookies.
Cookie report
Name Domain Expiration Description
CookieScriptConsent www.socialjustice.ie 1 month This cookie is used by Cookie-Script.com service to remember visitor cookie consent preferences. It is necessary for Cookie-Script.com cookie banner to work properly.
AWSELBCORS www.podbean.com 5 minutes The cookies AWSELB and AWSELBCORS are functionally the same cookies. The latter has an explicit SameSite attribute set because of changes made from Chrome 80 and upwards. 
__cf_bm .podbean.com 30 minutes This cookie is used to distinguish between humans and bots. This is beneficial for the website, in order to make valid reports on the use of their website.
Performance cookies are used to see how visitors use the website, eg. analytics cookies. Those cookies cannot be used to directly identify a certain visitor.
Cookie report
Name Domain Expiration Description
_ga .socialjustice.ie 2 years This cookie name is associated with Google Universal Analytics - which is a significant update to Google's more commonly used analytics service. This cookie is used to distinguish unique users by assigning a randomly generated number as a client identifier. It is included in each page request in a site and used to calculate visitor, session and campaign data for the sites analytics reports.
_gid .socialjustice.ie 1 day This cookie is set by Google Analytics. It stores and update a unique value for each page visited and is used to count and track pageviews.
Targeting cookies are used to identify visitors between different websites, eg. content partners, banner networks. Those cookies may be used by companies to build a profile of visitor interests or show relevant ads on other websites.
Cookie report
Name Domain Expiration Description
_gat_gtag_UA_30714684_1 .socialjustice.ie 1 minute This cookie is part of Google Analytics and is used to limit requests (throttle request rate).
YSC .youtube.com Session This cookie is set by YouTube to track views of embedded videos.
VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE .youtube.com 6 months This cookie is set by Youtube to keep track of user preferences for Youtube videos embedded in sites;it can also determine whether the website visitor is using the new or old version of the Youtube interface.
Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer by websites that you visit. Websites use cookies to help users navigate efficiently and perform certain functions. Cookies that are required for the website to operate properly are allowed to be set without your permission. All other cookies need to be approved before they can be set in the browser. You can change your consent to cookie usage at any time on our Privacy Policy page.
Cookies consent ID:
Cookie report created by Cookie-Script