50 years of the EU and Industrial Relations in Ireland

he Irish Association for Industrial Relations is delighted to host an online seminar to mark the 50th anniversary of Ireland's accession to the EEC in 1973. Ireland has experienced profound change over the last half century including significant peaks and troughs in employment numbers, increased dependency for employment on multinational companies, a shift towards services sector jobs and rising participation of women and migrant workers in the labour market. In industrial relations, there has been a significant reduction in union density, an increase in the number and influence of employment laws on employment relationships while collective industrial laws have been the subject of controversary. Conflict between workers and companies remains a constant but the expression of that conflict has changed as has the state institutional structures which help to resolve workplace disputes. This seminar brings together leading figures in the study and practice of industrial relations to reflect on the impact of Ireland's accession to the EEC on industrial relations over the last 50 years.

Speaker bios:

Esther Lynch was elected as General Secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation in 2022 following her role as Deputy General Secretary. Esther’s responsibilities at the ETUC have included social dialogue, collective bargaining and wage policy, trade union rights, gender equality and the fight against the far-right. Prior to joining the ETUC, Esther spent over 20 years as a trade union official and as the Legal and Social Affairs Officer with the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) where she had particular involvement in negotiations on the national wage agreements and on equality issues.

Bill Roche is Professor of Industrial Relations and Human Resources at the School of Business, University College Dublin and Honorary Professor at the School of Management, Queen's University Belfast. He has written and edited 10 books and published in excess of 100 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters. His books include Austerity and Recovery in Ireland: Europe's Poster Child and the Great Recession; Managing Workplace Conflict: Alternative Dispute Resolution in Ireland and The Oxford Handbook of Conflict Management in Organizations. He was appointed by the Government to the High Level Working Group on Collective Bargaining in 2021.

Kevin Foley has been Chairman of the Labour Court since 2016 having previously served as Deputy Chairman. Prior to joining the Labour Court, Kevin was regarded as Ireland's leading conciliator serving as Director of Conciliation Services at the Labour Relations Commission. During his time in the Labour Court and the LRC, Kevin has been involved in dispute resolution of major conflicts during periods of significant economic and social change.

Seminar Chair: Aurora Trif is Associate Professor of International Employment Relations and Human Resource Management at Dublin City University. She has published widely in leading international journals on precarious employment in new member states, workplace partnership, social dialogue and workplace dispute resolution.

The seminar is free and registered attendees will receive a link to the event before is starts.

For more information on the Irish Association for Industrial Relations, please see https://www.ul.ie/iair/