ICTU champions "atypical" workforce

THE Irish Congress of Trade Unions has demanded a minimum hourly rate of pay for all workers and the banning of zero hour contracts.

The measures are the main recommendations in a report on "atypical" work, published yesterday. Minimum Standards for Atypical Work, which was presented to the Government, describes a climate of growing casualisation and worker insecurity. The demand for a minimum pay rate would feature in all future Congress negotiations, assistant general secretary Ms Patricia O'Donovan said.

More than one in 10 jobs in Ireland is part time, according to the report. The number of part time workers as a percentage of the workforce has almost doubled in 10 years. Part time work grew from 6.4 per cent to 10.8 per cent between 1985 and 1994.

The Labour Force Survey, published this week, found part time workers accounted for 12 per cent of the workforce last year. Growth has cent red on the retail sector, according to FAS figures for 1995, the report said. An earlier FAS/ ESRI study had predicted that the service and professional occupations would be the main growth areas. Department stores, with 56 per cent, have the highest number of part time workers.

The scale and speed of growth in part time, casual, seasonal and agency work, said Ms O'Donovan, meant "atypical" work was becoming more typical.

This trend should continue, with part time work in the retail sector expected to account for 46 per cent of the total retail workforce by the end of the decade, the report says.

Ireland experienced the second largest growth in part time work in the EU over four years at 5.5 per cent a year. Germany had the highest at over 9 per cent a year, the report said.

The report also charts trends in other areas of "atypical work"

defined as any job which does not fit the "job for life" criteria. Its features are low pay, job insecurity, exclusion from occupational benefits, no training or career development and a low level of trade union organisation.

"The labour flexibility sought by employers is sometimes necessary and it can, on occasions, suit the needs of workers," Ms O'Donovan said. The report describes zero hour contracts as "the most extreme form of atypical working, which provides the employer with total flexibility and the employee with absolutely no protection".

Almost 10 per cent of the workforce is employed on fixed term contracts, compared to 7.3 per cent in 1985. Twelve per cent of women are employed on this basis, compared to 7.5 per cent of men. And more than half of all women workers aged 25 to 44 are regular part time workers.

There were no statistics for teleworking in Ireland, the report said, although UK figures indicated that 11 per cent of employers had some staff based at home for at least half their working time. The ICTU report supplies 20 recommendations at Government, Congress and individual union levels. "Whether this is done in the context of talks on another national programme will depend on the outcome of the special conference [on a new national agreement] on September 26th.