SIPTU has welcomed a report by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions into workplace innovation in Ireland. In one of its key findings the ‘Work Organisation and Innovation in Ireland’ report concludes that workplace innovation helps to secure and sustain employment and workplaces.SIPTU Manufacturing Division Organiser, Gerry McCormack, said, “The report confirms that SIPTU’s strategy of using workplace innovation to enhance and sustain manufacturing employment in Ireland is the correct one. It also emphasises the crucial role that organisations such as the Ideas Institute play in providing the expertise and training that result in successful outcomes to the process of developing workplace innovation.”At the report’s publication on Thursday (27th June) the Minister for Enterprise and Innovation, Sean Sherlock, also welcomed its findings and the suggestion that examples in Ireland be used to promote workplace innovation across the EU.The main recommendations of the report are:1. The Irish Government should continue to promote high performance work practices (HPWPs) among employers within Ireland. The Government should guide employers and social partners to sources of European funding that can help implement work organisation innovations to secure jobs and growth.2. The Irish Government can take the opportunity, following its Presidency of the Council of the European Union, to engage with its successor Presidencies to promote the diffusion of high performance work practices across European Member States and to showcase the innovations that have taken place within workplaces in Ireland to inspire employers in other Member States.3. The Irish Government can take the opportunity to link work organisation innovations to the scope of actions open to Irish firms within the Skillnets programme in line with the recommendations in the Forfás report ‘Making it in Ireland: Manufacturing 2020’.4. Employers, employer associations and trade unions have an important role to play in continuing to raise awareness of benefits of work organisation innovations across Irish enterprises, which can provide win-win benefits for employers and workers.The full report can be found on the European Foundations website – www.eurofound.europa.eu
SIPTU welcomes European Foundation report on workplace innovation in Ireland
