Ireland has launched its Action Plan to Promote Collective Bargaining 2026-2030. This reaffirms its commitment to voluntarism, favouring encouragement, guidance and financial incentives over legal mandates.
On 5 November, the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment launched Ireland’s Action Plan to Promote Collective Bargaining 2026 – 2030. This is intended to meet the government’s obligations under Article 4 of the EU Directive on Adequate Minimum Wages.
Developed with the social partners, the Action Plan sets out government strategy to promote collective bargaining over the rest of the decade. It largely avoids changes to primary legislation or shifting away from Ireland’s voluntarist approach to industrial relations. Instead, it focuses on persuasion, capacity-building, and financial incentives.
The most important takeaway is that Ireland’s voluntarist tradition of industrial relations is not going anywhere. Employers in Ireland still can’t be forced to recognise a trade union for collective bargaining purposes. The government views this voluntarist tradition as key to Ireland’s economic success, so it is not surprising that no major changes are proposed.
In line with this, two of the more controversial proposals put forward for consultation have been rejected:
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