Ictu conference:THE LEADER of the Labour Party, Eamon Gilmore, has said that in government his party would introduce legislation to provide for collective bargaining rights for workers.
In an address to the biennial delegate conference of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu) in Tralee yesterday, he said Labour would commit to giving domestic effect to the principles, including collective bargaining, enshrined in the Charter of Fundamental Rights which will become European law if the Lisbon Treaty is passed.
Mr Gilmore later told journalists the charter contained several guarantees which were of interest to workers, including a guarantee of collective bargaining and the right to representation for employees.
“If the Lisbon Treaty is ratified that will become part of European law, and the Labour Party believes that that should be given effect in domestic law, and the way in which we would give that effect is by having consultations in advance with the social partners about the detail of any legislation,” he said.
Union sources said they believed such a measure would mean that where employees opted to join a union, management would have to recognise this and negotiate with them.
The general secretary of Ictu, David Begg, said unions had been trying to achieve such collective bargaining rights for decades, and this was the most singular promise made by a party leader. The president of Siptu, Jack O’Connor, said: “We very much welcome this statement, especially given the reasonable prospect of Labour being part of the next government, and we note that it contrasts sharply with the current Government’s refusal to do so, although it simultaneously supports that very same principle in the Lisbon Treaty.”
Unions believe that legislation introduced in 2001 and 2004 which gave them a limited right to represent workers in non-union companies was effectively emasculated following a Supreme Court decision in a challenge brought by Ryanair.
Mr Gilmore also told the conference there were at least eight commitments on employment rights made in the social partnership agreement Towards 2016 and in the subsequent transitional agreement last year which had yet to be passed into law.
“I am calling on the Government to demonstrate that it is genuinely committed to strong and fair employment rights by enacting the outstanding legislation promised under Towards 2016.
“If this administration fails to do so, then when it is returned to government the Labour Party will, as a matter of priority, legislate to protect the rights of temporary agency workers; ensure that the Posting of Workers Directive does not undermine existing workers’ rights in Ireland; ensure the legal right to adequate representation of employees in their place of work; make it illegal to discriminate against an employee because they are a member of a trade union; and pass the Industrial Relations Bill to protect vulnerable workers in the hotel, catering and construction industries.”
Mr Gilmore also said the current recession was different to any experienced previously, and businesses that were fundamentally viable were going to the wall.
“That is why I made the argument at a Labour Party seminar last February that more should be done to retain existing jobs.
“Because I believed we were throwing in the towel too early on job-retention. And that is why I support the negotiations with Government to put in place a jobs-retention scheme.
“To use the money that would otherwise be spent on social welfare and taxes lost to keep existing jobs.
“To preserve the fabric of the economy. To keep jobs alive which do have a viable future.”
Mr Gilmore said increasingly he was hearing from Fianna Fáil that the solution to the fiscal crisis was to cut public expenditure.
He said the leaking of the report of An Bord Snip represented “the longest ‘softening-up’ exercise in the history of the State”.
He did not see why the report should remain secret. “Let’s see it! Publish the report, and let’s debate it.
“And let’s debate too the notion that we can only deal with the public finances by cutting social spending.
“Even in the worst days the late 1980s social welfare rates were not cut. They were indexed in line with inflation as part of the first social partnership agreement.”