ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the emergence and evolution of workplace partnership in Aer Rianta from the mid 1980s until the late 1990s. Under the rubric of what came to be known as ‘constructive participation’ (CP), Aer Rianta management and unions set about establishing a series of arrangements which were to provide employees and their representatives with a say in decision-making processes at all levels of the organization from work groups, departments, business units (airports) to the making of corporate strategy at corporate level. The origins of CP are traced to the mid 1980s when the unions in Aer Rianta gave early consideration to the manner in which the company might respond to and transpose into practice legislation designed to allow for worker participation in state-owned companies. The development of partnership in Aer Rianta went far beyond that envisaged in the legislation and is among the most significant voluntary initiatives of its type in the English-speaking world.
