Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 27 Feb 1991

Vol. 405 No. 7

Adjournment Debate. - Finglas (Dublin) Industrial Dispute.

Proinsias De Rossa

The strike in River Valley Products in Finglas in my constituency involves a relatively small number of people directly — just 12 — but the issues raised by the dispute are of national importance and affect a huge number of workers, most of whom are women. The dispute also raises very serious questions about the policy of FÁS in regard to the placement of young workers and the operation of the new Industrial Relations Act. It is appropriate that we should have this Adjournment Debate tonight on the eve of the introduction of the part-time workers Bill by the Minister tomorrow in this House, because those who are now on strike in River Valley Products are typical of a huge number of part-time workers who have been shamefully exploited by unscrupulous employers in the absence of appropriate protective legislation.

The 12 women who are now on strike worked as regular part-time general operatives at River Valley Products. They were employed for 17½ hours per week, just 30 minutes per week below the threshold necessary to qualify for redundancy, unfair dismissal and maternity leave claims. Just before Christmas they were let go. However, when one of the women workers returned to collect pay she found that five young male workers were doing the exact same work from which they had been let go.

Annoyance turned to anger when the women discovered that these youths had been employed through an advertisement placed in a FÁS centre in Finglas and were being paid £1.50 per hour, more than £1 an hour less than the women had been earning. This raised very serious questions about the diligence and practices adopted by FÁS. I accept that FÁS may not have been aware when they agreed to place the advertisement that the recruits were going to replace women workers who had been let go. At the same time there is clearly an obligation on FÁS to do some sort of vetting of prospective employers to ensure that young people desperate for jobs are not taken advantage of by unscrupulous employers and especially to ensure that recruits are not replacing regular and better paid employees. There is clearly a need for the Minister to intervene to ensure that procedures applied by FÁS do not allow for a repeat of the disgraceful circumstances at River Valley Products.

When the women discovered what had happened their union served strike notice and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions took such a serious view of the issue that they granted an all-out picket. It is noteworthy that this employer has only demonstrated his contempt for the efforts of the new labour relations commission to resolve this dispute. He has refused to deal directly with the trade union involved, SIPTU, and most regrettably he has been successful in resorting to the 1990 Industrial Relations Act in order to try to undermine the effectiveness of the strike by getting a High Court injunction under the new Act to prevent what is called "inducement to breach of contract".

It is clearly wrong that an employer who is blatantly exploiting labour in order to undermine a legitimate trade dispute, cannot be made amenable to the usual industrial relations procedures. If this were a high profile enterprise the Minister would have already intervened. The rights of these low paid women are just as important as those of any other citizen and they have the right to expect the same level of protection as any other group of workers.

The strike is now in its second month and with the company showing no sign of wishing to settle I would appeal to the Minister to see what steps can be taken to force the company to see reason. We must also ensure that legislation is passed rapidly to ensure that this sort of exploitation of the most vulnerable section of the workforce is ended. The Bill which will be debated in the Dáil tomorrow will be a step in the right direction but unscrupulous employers will, I fear, still be able to find ways through it.

Employers and trade unions have just agreed a new Programme for Economic and Social Progress, which has been ratified by the Dáil. The programme places certain obligations on the trade union movement and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions are expected to ensure that trade unions behave in a responsible manner. There must also be an obligation on the employer organisations to see that the sort of activities highlighted by this strike are not engaged in by any employer with which they are associated.

Minister for Labour (Mr. B. Ahern)

For the record, the dispute concerns the replacement of 15 female part-time employees who worked 17½ hours per week as Deputy De Rossa has said, by five male full-time employees on lower hourly rates. It was normal practice for the part-timers to be laid off in December and re-employed in March but on this occasion they were replaced in January by full-time workers. This came to the attention of the union, SIPTU, who sought an explanation from management on the new working arrangements. In the absence of what they would regard as a satisfactory response, SIPTU called an official dispute and placed pickets on the company on 18 January.

On 1 February the Labour Relations Commission invited the parties to talks. After some hours of discussion management withdrew to obtain legal advice, and to date the commission have been unable to organise further talks.

For the information of Deputy De Rossa, who perhaps wishes that I become involved directly, shortly after the dispute started, members of the staff came and met me at an advice centre and I had two long discussions with them, following those discussions the Labour Relations Commission have been trying to reach a solution. The staff explained to me the full details of the contracts they had and the times when they might and might not be laid off. I am aware of the full details, but I do not think some of those points are particularly relevant. I do agree with the Deputy that even though the dates were fixed and even though the staff knew of the position, it was still extremely sharp practice by the employer involved.

As the Deputy is probably aware, this dispute recently gave rise to legal proceedings. While an injunction was granted restraining SIPTU from inducing its members in other employments supplied by the company to breach a commercial contract, the court found that there was a trade dispute in existence and the picketing could continue. What is involved in this dispute is primarily an industrial relations issue and while recourse to the courts may have been deemed necessary, the best means of resolving the dispute is through the industrial relations machinery, that is the Labour Relations Commission and, if necessary, the Labour Court, as we pointed out to the company and SIPTU. I therefore call again on the parties involved to reconsider their positions and enter into meaningful discussions, because the continuation of the dispute cannot be of benefit either to the company or to the workforce. It is not too difficult to imagine from talking to the people involved or those trying to resolve the problem what will happen if they continue in the position that both sides are now in. I have pointed out already that the Labour Relations Commission have been involved and remains available to the parties at short notice and we have made that very clear to them. I therefore appeal to both sides and to the management, in particular, to use the machinery which has been made available to assist, in this situation.

I should point out that I have at present before the Dáil the part-time workers Bill, which Deputy De Rossa has mentioned and which will give part-time workers working eight hours per week the same protection under labour law as their full-time colleagues. However, it is only fair that I should say, having seen the correspondence and the contracts and agreements they had, it may not resolve all of the difficulties but it certainly will in a great number of these cases.

As regards FÁS, the first indication I heard of their involvement was from the individuals concerned and I investigated it because I was concerned about it. I am satisfied that the FÁS office in Finglas acted in good faith in facilitating the two placements with the the employer who placed the advertisement with them. They were aware of the employer in the area but when the background to the vacancy became known, I understand that FÁS immediately approached the company requesting information on the background and placed the remaining vacancies on hold; this remains the situation. In actual fact, two of the positions as I understand it, were filled by people who came from FÁS.

It would probably be impossible to formulate guidelines to address the situation in isolated cases. However, because of this and other disputes where employers try to use the system, we have tried to see in what way we can stop this abuse. It would be practically impossible for the FÁS offices, which are fairly hard pushed from a staff point of view, to check every individual vacancy. They, like any organisation, have a hit list of companies that they particularly watch, but in this case the company was not too far away from the FÁS office and they believed they were on safe enough ground, and accepted their bona fides.

I want to assure Deputy De Rossa that FÁS do not allow people who have been laid off to be replaced by short time workers. It was for this very reason, a few years back that I stopped the work experience programme, because I found there were gross abuses. Perhaps this is another way around the regulations. We certainly will do all we can to stop such abuses. Abuses greatly upset the FÁS staff involved because they are involved with the community and there is goodwill between them and the community; certainly the people in Finglas have good relationships with the industries and want to have that and do not want to get involved with somebody who abuses the system.

Finally, it will be a matter for industrial relations to resolve this dispute. I would like to appeal to the company to realise that if they are to get anywhere in an official strike with the biggest union, SIPTU, they must use the Labour Relations Commission and I urge them to do so.