shifted the proportion of the national product going to wages and lower salaries, nor have welfare and other so-called redistributive policies had the equalising effects imputed on them" (Fox, 1985;22) In Ireland, while there have been few dramatic changes with regard to social welfare, there have been significant cuts in the effective tax rate in favour of the lower paid. If we take the 1994 budget as one example, the effective tax rate for a single person earning 120 per week was cut by 3% from 20.6% to 17.6%. For the higher paid, if we take the example of someone earning 600 per week, the effective tax rate was only cut by 1.5% (McCarthy and Tansey, 1994). While this cannot be directly attributed to the success or otherwise of Collective bargaining, I maintain that the stabilising effect of the three agreements, along with the commitment therein would have had a distinct influence. This reduction in taxation will have a social influence: "to re integrate larger numbers of the unemployed back into the labour market, it is clearly desirable that the taxation burden on earned income be reduced" (McCarthy and Tansey, 1994;67) Centralised collective bargaining didn't actually do away with localised collective bargaining. Instead it changed the focus of collective bargaining. Gunnigle and Flood contend that the focus changed from pay increases towards employment conditions, pay anomalies and productivity. (1995). This is another of the good social influences of collective bargaining in Ireland. Now, rather than haggling over minimal wage increases, localised collective bargaining is instead working at improving working conditions, reducing grievances and increasing productivity. This change in focus has led collective bargaining away from the adversarial win-lose situation to a more cooperative model, with management and unions working together to achieve common goals.. While management have had to pay out more to improve working condition...
