Collective Bargaining and Industrial Disputes in Ireland

This paper falls into three main sections. The first section contains a general description of the legislative and institutional framework of the industrial relations system. The second section concerns collective bar-gaining between employers and trade unions, conciliation procedures and the incidence of industrial conflict in recent years. In the final section a number of different aspects of industrial relations are discussed including wage bargaining techniques, incomes policy and dispute situations which can be related to the existing institutional arrangements. Where approp-riate references are made to practices and procedures in industrial relations in other countries. I THE LEGAL FRAMEWORK In a free society the right of workers and employers to organise implies the right to exercise the power that collective action carries within the scope of a liberal legal framework. The right of workers and employer