The Labour Relations Commission is to establish a new division to handle public service disputes which take up an 'inordinate' amount of the commission's resources.
Launching the LRC's annual report for 2002, Chief Executive Kieran Mulvey said that while the public service accounted for around a third of the disputes referred to it, such complex disputes swallowed up around half of their resources.
A total of 1,693 new disputes were referred to the LRC last year, despite the lowest number of strike days lost since 1970.
Mr Mulvey also warned that increased costs in Irish industry had triggered a haemorrhage of jobs towards emerging states in Eastern Europe.
He added that these countries were now challenging the Irish model of economic development and Ireland's ability to position itself as a leading location for attracting foreign direct investment.
