Workforce expected to grow by 38,000 a year

THE number of workers in Ireland is expected to grow by 38,000 a year over the next 12 years with demand for immigrant labour likely to reach up to 30,000 a year according to the latest population projections.

This would necessitate over 50,000 people coming to live in Ireland each year to balance the 20,000 expected to leave each year producing a net migration effect of 30,000.

Of course these estimates are based on projected economic growth and are at the high end of the Central Statistics Office (CSO) projections based on the 2002 population census. Inward migration is expected to stay at their current levels with 0.5m people coming to live here over this decade.

The knock-on impact on the labour force would see it grow from 1.92m at present to a record 2.37m by 2016. CSO director Gerard O'Hanlon noted that the labour force demand will be the key determinant of migration over the projection period.

In the absence of net migration - if the numbers arriving equalled those leaving - the labour force is projected to increase by 17,000 a year. The anticipated annual labour force rise is only about 5,000 lower than the record pace recorded throughout the 1990s which was boosted by more women taking up paid employment.

On current trends the trades union have been unable to ensure that recruitment matches or exceeds the rising number of employees. This will see trade union density and workplace influence decline even further over the coming years.

As a rule of thumb the economy will need one and a half migrants for each job to be filled. This will have impact of racial, ethnic, cultural and religious integration and demand policies to address racism and exploitation by some Irish employers. It will also add pressure for housing and the demand for education and health services will continue to grow.

Looking further ahead to 2036, the CSO sees the overall population growing from 3.85m in three years ago to potentially 5.82m, an increase of just under 2m people. By then roughly one-third of the population would be over 65.

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Craft skills should secure degree status says TEEU

SNOBBERY was the only reason plumbers, fitters and electricians are not being awarded university-level degrees a union leader said claiming that the Department of Education favoured philosophy over plumbing.

The leader of the country's largest craft union, the Technical Engineering and Electrical Union (TEEU), Owen Wills said that "an arbitrary decision was taken by the department to rate all apprenticeships below degree level, even though some of them require higher Leaving Cert marks in subjects such as maths than many university courses."

He told the TEEU conference in Limerick that a decision to ignore the findings of a FAS study and rate apprenticeships at levels five and six, instead the recommended levels of six (diploma) and seven (pass degree level) was signed off on by the former Minister for Education, Noel Dempsey, in his last few hours in office.

Mr Wills told delegates that the individuals who made this decision would "applaud mediocrity in philosophy because it's philosophy, while ignoring excellence in plumbing because it's plumbing." He added that the Minister had been acting on the advice of senior officials and the Further Education and Training Awards Council (FETAC).

He accused FETAC and the Higher Education and Training Awards Council of creating a two-tier system designed with the intention of separating vocational training from what they regard as the more important academic awards.

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Wide communications gaps at work

A MAJOR survey of Irish managers and workers has found that while employers think they are consulting with staff, the employees report very little effective communication in the workplace.

The most detailed ever study of Irish workplaces found that some sectors are very poor at training but larger, high-tech companies have developed good skills and adaptability.

The survey of 1,490 private sector managers and 392 public sector leaders also considered the experiences and views of over 5,000 employees. It was undertaken by the National Centre for Partnership and Performance (NCPP) as part of its Forum on the Workplace of the Future.

Overall the study found that managers and workers were open to change and adaptability but this was more prevalent in manufacturing industry.

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Civil service union merger rejected

DELEGATES at the PSEU civil servants' conference dramatically rejected moves to begin merger talks with two rival public service trades unions which were expected to be adopted.

The Public Service Executive Union voted by 117 to 61 to oppose proposals from its executive to open amalgamation negotiations with IMPACT and the CPSU to form a new 70,000-strong organisation. It is considered a significant set-back for the union's leadership and executive council.

The planned new union would be the second largest within the Irish Congress of Trades Unions and would present a counter-balance to the dominant SIPTU which has 200,000 members. The other two unions' conferences will now reconsider whether to proceed with a vote on starting talks next month.

General secretary Dan Murphy told delegates at the annual conference that, after it learned that IMPACT and the CPSU were in initial discussions, it was "very much in the union's interests to participate and make the process tri-partite".

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Smoking bans take effect smoothly

IRELAND'S new ban on smoking in all workplaces, which includes pubs and restaurants, has taken effect with little real opposition.

The dramatic ban on smoking posed as much of a challenge for human resource managers as for pub owners but few breaches have been reported in the first two weeks.

Some employers used the ban as an opportunity to initiate employee 'quit smoking' programmes while hundreds of publicans and coffee shops rushed to buy Perspex smoking shelters.

Ireland's minister for health, Micheál Martin, initiated the measure, which is the most extensive introduced in any developed economy. He received strong backing from medical and trade union quarters.

A few companies offered €50 (Stg£30) nicotine patch starter packs for employees who signed up to company sponsored smoking cessation programmes. In general most employments strictly imposed the ban though a majority of offices had already introduced restricted smoking or complete bans over the past five years.

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Irish women on 85% of male earnings

WOMEN workers earn 15% less than men, despite the introduction of equal pay 30 years ago, mainly due to the unequal burden of childcare and domestic duties - according to equality researchers.

A conference on gender pay gaps, to coincide with International Women's Day, was told that moves to disclose everyone's pay would help close the earnings gap. French union official, Naja Salson said that it should be "a priority to ban confidentiality of wages" and such an approach had been proposed, but not adopted, in Denmark.

She added that there was a clear "pay penalty" attached to part-time work throughout the EU with one-third of women and just 7% of men in part-time jobs. "Overall", Ms Salson added, "77% of the EU's lower-paid workers are women".

In a report on pay gaps in Ireland, ESRI researcher Helen Russell said that the gap between men and women's earning ranged from 4pc among younger workers to about 30% for those without secondary school qualifications. The greatest pay gaps for men and women were among service and sales workers at 32%, with the gap among managers not much lower at 28%.

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Is workplace heartache giving you a headache? Don't panic!

Remember the problems Tom Sanders (Michael Douglas) had with Meredith Johnson (Demi Moore) in Disclosure? He comes into work and finds a big surprise waiting for him: his ex-lover, sexy and fierce, is about to seize the vice-president position he expects and deserves. Once she's settled into her posh office, Meredith all-too-innocently invites Tom up after work for an "office chat", only to ply him with some fine wine and make some interesting advances. Initially, the two stars ignite some sexual sparks, but for the remainder of the film they hiss venomously at one another (and their lawyers) in a battle for corporate survival. The electrifying plot is enough to give even the most experienced executive chronic nightmares!

Some employers understand that workplace relationships are inevitable. However, there are many who feel that the office is no place for romance. Whatever your point of view, the fact is that they happen - and judging on recent research data released this month in the UK, they happen a lot. Two thirds of respondents have admitted that they were seduced by someone at work.

Enormous demands are placed on workers these days, with presenteeism high on the list of desirable company practices. Furthermore, employees who are single are remaining eligible for a longer period of time. It's no wonder that our workers exploit the convenience and romantic potential.

The research shows that the majority of romances fizzle out, often without colleagues ever having been aware of their existence in the first place. Only four out of ten people said their office relationship had lasted for more than three months. Two-thirds tried to keep their liaison secret from co-workers.

However, when broken dreams spill over into the workplace it can cause headaches of migraine proportions to employers and managers. The fallout can include decreased morale and productivity on the part of colleagues and claims of favouritism, bias, bullying, sexual harassment by the ex-lovers. Half of people surveyed said that their office flirtations had adversely affected their work performance.

Here are some simple strategies for employers to deal with the thorny issues raised by love-struck (or stricken!) employees:

Be prepared. Watch out for potential problems stemming from a workplace romance. At the same time, limit your involvement in employees' love lives to areas that directly affect the company. If you must step in, focus on the consequences of the relationship, not the motivation behind it.

Be pro-active. If you have not already done so, you could circulate, implement, and unconditionally enforce reasonable policies on dating and family relationships in the office. You can't ban relationships outright, so get input from your company lawyers on any new policies to ensure legal compliance.

Take valid complaints seriously. This does not mean addressing every employee's complaint. However you are obliged to address the reasonable and legitimate ones.

Don't panic when clashing colleagues go public. Contain the urge to arbitrarily apportion blame and transfer or dismiss the culprit under your sexual harassment policy. Professional mediation might help the couple work out their differences and the conditions under which to continue working together.

Be fair to both parties. As in all grievance claims, a neutral and consistent investigation of complaints that treats each party with equal respect (regardless of gender, marital status or rank) must be carried out.

Be discreet and respect privacy. Train all your managers how to handle grievance and disciplinary issues. Make your response to complaints quickly and confidentially. Don't retaliate or let any of your managers or co-workers retaliate against employees who file any sort of complaint related to a workplace romance.

Lead by example. Make sure that you exercise caution and common sense in your own personal relationships with colleagues and employees.

And finally, it goes without saying, Document everything.

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Pay versus loyalty for high-tech employees

ABOUT one-third of Ireland's high-skilled 'knowledge' workers feel they are under-paid but still have a strong loyalty to their employers according to a study of computer and research employees.

Limerick University professor, Patrick Flood told the Forum on the Workplace of the Future hearings that despite the strong sense of loyalty "at any given time some 75pc of knowledge employees will be considering the possibility of leaving their employer". The research covered 500 Irish employees in high-tech companies.

He said that the main 'push' factors influencing people to change jobs was the lack of challenges and strong social ties and personal loyalty to colleagues. Prof. Flood said that research published in Britain suggested that job satisfaction and commitment accounts for between 5pc and 15pc of company profitability and productivity differences in manufacturing industry.

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Focus on why people perform above expectations

THE director of CIPD-Ireland, the personnel managers' professional body, Michael McDonnell said that the focus in creating effective workplaces should be on why people perform better and beyond the minimum required.

He said that if employees have the ability to do a better job by having the necessary knowledge and skills and are well motivated, as well as given an opportunity to contribute to an organisation, they will do so.

Another key to top performance detailed by the CIPD chief was "people's perception of their employer and their level of job satisfaction". He warned that managers who treat workers as "disposable assets" rather than stakeholders or over-emphasis entrepreneurship above "committed fellowship" risk poor performance.

Mr McDonnell said that senior managers could no longer defend the extravagant rewards they have been giving themselves while not extending the same rewards downwards.

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January 2004

Entire public service re-graded for wage increases

THIS month Ireland's 230,000 public servants will each get special pay increases from the country's experiment with a public service benchmarking body. The salary rises, ranging from 3% to 25%, are in addition to the current national wage agreement which provides for 4.8% annual pay increases.

The benchmarking has been described as the most extensive and comprehensive comparison of public and private sector jobs conducted in Europe. Over €2m (Stg£1.4m) was spent hiring various experts and consultants to assess the education, responsibilities, performance, stresses, skills, judgement, competencies and management structures in 135 different sectors and grades.

They also produced pay data on 202 private sector companies, involving 3,563 jobs, and developed 276 core 'job capsules' with which to make comparisons.

The benchmarking process is an historic break from the traditional grade structures with salary scales based on relativities to key grades like clerical officer or principal officer civil service positions.

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Irish minimum wage rises to €7 an hour

IRELAND'S minimum wage increases by 10.2% to €7 at the end of this month. The new rate, agreed under the joint employer-union social partnership 'Sustaining Progress' wage agreement, brings the Irish rate to the third highest in Europe.

"We now have a situation that the minimum rate here is 25% higher than that which operates in the US, Canada, Japan and Germany," said the director of the Irish Small Firms' Association, (SFA) Pat Delaney.

"Just over one quarter of SFA-member firms, in a recent survey we conducted, have told us that the minimum wage was a major problem for their business. These firms are vulnerable to payroll costs which make up a significant element of overall costs at between 30% and 40%," he added.

The new Irish rate, increased from €6.35 an hour, compares with the current €6.13 equivalent of the current British rate of Stg£4.20 an hour. A major concern to Irish employers, especially in manufacturing, is the comparison with basic wage rates in eastern and southern European countries.

The new Irish rates, applicable to nearly all employees over 18, ranks behind Luxembourg and the Netherlands for top position. At €7 an hour, it is more than double the official minimum rates in Spain and Portugal and nearly five times the rates in new EU accession countries like Hungary.

Align Management News Digest
©Align Management Solutions 2006

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