The union representing workers in the Irish fishing industry has accused the Government of reneging on commitments to improve protections against excessive working hours in the sector by extending the oversight role of the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC).
Those working at sea are the only private sector group specifically excluded from the terms of the Organisation of Working Time Act, 1997.
Members of An Garda Síochána and the Defence Forces as well as junior doctors in training are all also excluded for the provisions intended to protect people from having to work excessive hours.
In a letter to the Minister for Enterprise, Simon Coveney, sent last week, International Transport Workers Federation General Secretary Stephen Cotton said the Government has failed to honour the terms of an agreement reached with the union as part of the settlement of a High Court action in 2019 to legislate to allow directly employed fishers seek compensation at the WRC if they have been required to work excessive hours.
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Mr Cotton said then Minister of State at the department, Damien English, repeated the commitment in January 2022, stating at the time that a proposal to extend the WRC’s jurisdiction to cover such cases would be “included as a miscellaneous amendment in a legislative instrument in the Spring”. This commitment, the letter notes, was “likewise not honoured”.
With the visa landscape for those from outside the EU working at sea on Irish vessels having altered due to changes to the Atypical Working Scheme, the status of hundreds of migrant fishers changed. The vast majority of fishers employed at sea currently operate on a form of self-employment involving payment based on a share of the catch. This form of technical self employment-would put them outside the jurisdiction of the WRC anyway.
The Government is currently reviewing visa arrangements for workers coming from outside the EU to work in a number of sectors in the future, something the ITWF said is likely to result in growing numbers of fishers being directly employed by operators of vessels. It wants the commitments made in relation to the extension of the Act’s protections honoured before that process begins.
The union said that while vessel owners can be prosecuted for abuses, the WRC does not have the jurisdiction to award compensation, something the commission has specifically acknowledged in a number of cases brought before it.
“Even in successful cases ... where testimony and evidence of working days in excess of the 14 hour maximum was accepted the adjudicators were unable to make appropriate compensatory awards for breaches ... because neither you not your predecessor have introduced the simple amending legislation required,” Mr Cotton told Mr Coveney.
A High Court action intended to establish the right of the WRC and Labour Court to infer jurisdiction under European law is due in court on Tuesday.
