I move:
That a sum not exceeding £27,355,000 be granted to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of December, 1978, for the salaries and expenses of the Office of the Minister for Labour, including certain services administered by that Office, and for payment of certain grants-in-aid.
In introducing the Estimates for the Department of Labour for the first time, I wish to outline my principal aims as Minister. They are twofold: first, to make the greatest contribution possible to improving the employment situation and, secondly, to update the procedures and institutions so as to help our industrial relations to operate more satisfactorily.
The amount sought for 1978 in the main Estimate and the Supplementary Estimate is about £15 million or 85 per cent greater than the provision allocated for the previous year. The principal increases are under the heading of the employment incentive scheme, where an increase is made of over £5 million on last year's provision of approximately £1.81 million, and £5 million for the new employment maintenance scheme. Another major increase is for An Chomhairle Oiliúna —AnCO—where an additional £3.78 million or 31 per cent is being provided for industrial training. In this review I propose to give the House details of the services covered by the Estimate. I will start by dealing with the services, which relate directly to, or support, employment creation and maintenance and filling of jobs. The total of the main Estimate and Supplementary Estimate is £33,150,000. First, however, I should say a few words on the general employment situation.
Measures taken and planned by the Government on the employment front were set out in the recent White Paper on National Development and in the Minister for Finance's budget speech. The Government are aiming at the creation of 25,000 additional jobs per year made up of 29,000 non-agricultural jobs counteracted to some extent by a drop of 4,000 in agriculture. When looked at in terms of past job creation achievements this target is indeed formidable. Government plans for stimulating employment further will be dealt with in the planning Green Paper to be issued in the near future.
The unemployment position as reflected in live register figures has been improving. The most recent figure available, 105,894 is for the week ended 5 May 1978. This is a reduction of 7,603 on the corresponding figure for 1977. The figure has decreased by more than 5,000 in the last five weeks. The current year-to-year gap is the largest since late 1972.
A sum of £7 million is provided for the employment incentive scheme for the payment of premiums of £20 or £14 to employers for up to 24 weeks in respect of each extra eligible worker employed. The amount of premium depends on the age and category of the worker.
The scheme originally applied only to manufacturing industry and agriculture and was to run from February 1977 to February 1978. The Government decided to extend the scheme from September 1977 to include the hotel and catering industry, the services sector generally, and the construction industry—the latter on a trial basis—and also to increase the premium payable in respect of school leavers from £10 to £14. In addition it was decided to continue the scheme to the end of 1978.
Up to 5 May 1978 premiums totalling £1.8 million have been paid in respect of 5,391 employees, that is, 3,706 adults and 1,613 school leavers. The comparative figure of expenditure for the ten months of 1977 during which the scheme operated is £796,000. Premiums were paid during 1977 in respect of 2,698 employees of whom 2,016 were adults and 682 were school leavers.
While it is not possible at this stage to give a reliable estimate of the extent to which the scheme, as extended, will be availed of I am hopeful that in 1978 as many as 17,000 to 18,000 employees will benefit.
As announced by the Minister for Finance in the budget statement of 1 February 1978, the Government have decided that firms engaged in the clothing and footwear industries and some areas of the textile industry should be assisted by payment of £5 per week in respect of each worker on their payroll. This is a temporary measure intended to help firms in the labour-intensive sectors mentioned to maintain employment in circumstances of special need. It will be reviewed when the fully pay-related social insurance contribution system comes into operation. but payments may continue until March 1980 unless the scheme is terminated earlier. A sum of £5 million has been allocated for this purpose in the current financial year and is provided for in a Supplementary Estimate being taken with the main Estimate.
The scheme will operate with effect from the beginning of April 1978 and it is intended that payments will be made in respect of the 13 weeks ending 30 June 1978 as soon as practicable thereafter.
A draft scheme has been furnished to the EEC Commission in accordance with Article 93 (3) of the EEC Treaty and is at present under examination in Brussels. Full details of the scheme will be announced as soon as possible.
As you know, the Employment Action Team was established to come forward with possible schemes to stimulate youth employment. The team, which have been meeting at regular intervals since the end of September last, submitted their first set of proposals to me in mid-November. The proposals involved:—
a community fitness programme;
an environmental improvement schemes programme;
a work experience programme;
apprentice recruitment by local authorities; and
a community-based survey in Ballyfermot, et cetera.
With the exception of the proposal for a community fitness programme which is being incorporated by the Minister for Health into his community health programme, the other proposals have been approved in principle by the Government. Proposals for the implementation of the work experience programme are at present being worked out by the National Manpower Service of my Department in consultation with the appropriate agencies and pilot schemes for the first trainees will be under way in July.
The Government allocated £4 million for the implementation of the environmental improvement scheme programme and the Minister for the Environment has advised local authorities of their allocations. Projects are already planned and in many cases under way in all local authority areas.
The Government has allocated £200,000 for the funding of the scheme for increased construction industry apprentice recruitment by the local authorities. The local authorities have been asked to commence this recruitment without delay. The National Manpower Service of my Department will be assisting the local authorities in the recruitment for these programmes. A Supplementary Estimate introduced by the Minister for the Environment in respect of this allocation was recently passed by the Dáil. The Ballyfermot survey has started and the first instalment of the grant of £10,000 has been paid.
When the approved schemes are fully operational about 4,000 young people will benefit. It is difficult to give up-to-date figures on the numbers employed to date because of the large number of separate authorities involved. The latest information which I have, and which is not complete, relates to the position as at the end of April and indicates that about 300 people have been employed on the approved schemes while another 74 have been employed to supervise the schemes. The various agencies involved in the implementation of the schemes have been instructed to bring them to full operational level at the earliest possible opportunity.
The items of expenditure arising from the team's recommendations which are chargeable to my Department's Vote are set out in the Supplementary Estimate. I am currently engaged in a review of the team's work with the objective of developing the team's role in the Government's overall job-creation programme. There have been administrative problems in getting these schemes launched in certain areas but I am pressing all concerned to have their problems overcome to achieve full operation as a matter of urgency.
I am glad to say that despite very restricted resources the degree of penetration of the labour market by the National Manpower Service increased still further during 1977 and some 19,577 persons were placed in employment as against 18,549 in 1976. Commendable as these achievements are, I am not satisfied that the NMS are sufficiently well geared to meet their present commitments, not to talk of the additional duties the Government are asking them to undertake in relation to the various job creation programmes.
I am satisfied that more resources are needed by the service, particularly at field level. Therefore I propose, with the approval of the Minister for the Public Service, to expand this service substantially during the present year. We hope to recruit at least 30 extra placement officers from a competition which has recently been held and I expect some of these to take up duty before the end of June.
The occupational guidance service of the National Manpower Service has officers located in Dublin, Galway, Waterford, Sligo and Dundalk. I am satisfied that extra personnel are required for this branch of the service also and I propose to assign additional trained officers to other centres as soon as they become available later this year.
The Government in their manifesto have made a commitment to "the placement in suitable employment of those workers either mentally or physically disadvantaged." All Public Departments, local authorities, State boards and enterprises have been requested to employ a quota of disabled persons, and a 3 per cent quota has been set as a target to be achieved over five years. I have set up an interdepartmental committee to administer the quota scheme and to deal with problems arising and to monitor progress in relation to it.
The National Manpower Service provide comprehensive information about the requirements for practically every occupation available in the country. The information is published in leaflet form and there are at present 250 leaflets covering about 300 occupations, and about four million are distributed annually. In addition to the leaflets, a number of booklets containing information about careers for university graduates have been produced in consultation with university careers and appointments officers. The careers information service also participate in many careers exhibitions and seminars, and staff are available at these events to answer questions and give additional information to individual inquirers.
The purpose of the Resettlement Assistance Scheme is to provide financial assistance to help those who are obliged to move to other areas within the country and emigrants returning home to take up employment arranged for them through the National Manpower Service. Grants are also payable to persons to travel to undertake training or to be tested as to their suitability for such training.
Another responsibility of the Department is the licensing of private employment agencies. The annual licence fee for agencies was increased from £5 to £100, with effect from 1 February 1977, so as to obtain a reasonable contribution to the cost of administering the Act and to help in maintaining a high professional standard in the conduct of employment agencies.
For the effective implementation of manpower policy it is necessary to have adequate market information. The National Manpower Service carried out surveys for the last three years on the employment position of second-level school leavers. The 1977 survey of 1976 school-leavers showed that 57 per cent found employment, 8 per cent were unemployed, 2 per cent were not available for employment and 21 per cent went on to full-time higher education. About 2 per cent emigrated and the destination of 10 per cent was not known to the schools. A survey of last year's leavers is currently under way.
I have already referred to the census of labour availability which is being carried out in Ballyfermot on the recommendation of the Employment Action Team. I intended to examine the possibility of carrying out similar exercises in other areas.
I am very interested in studies on the functioning of the labour market. I welcome the increased attention being paid to this topic lately by research bodies and international organisations such as the OECD. My Department over the last year helped finance a post-graduate study at UCC on reasons for variations in the unemployment rate between Irish towns and between Ireland and a number of OECD countries. We are presently looking at the possibility of assisting the Institute of Public Administration to carry out a study on the relationship between growth and employment in the manufacturing sector.
A committee to advise on emigrant matters was set up by the Minister for Labour of the time in 1969. The committee have concentrated on assisting the National Manpower Service in bringing to the attention of emigrants and intending emigrants job opportunities at home. They have also advised on the distribution of grants to voluntary emigrant organisations which provide advisory services for intending emigrants.
While the situation has changed since the committee were set up, I feel that they may still have a useful contribution to make and I propose to continue the committee in existence at least for some time.
The redundancy payments scheme has been in existence since 1968 and since then it has helped over 90,000 persons who have lost their jobs because of redundancy. The scheme was adapted in 1971 and again in 1974 to improve benefits and to bring more people within the scope of the benefits.
The rate of notification of redundancies by employers has remained fairly constant at a little below 13,000 a year during 1976 and 1977. A significant reduction in the number of redundancies is expected this year.
The scheme has been a successful one and its benefits to workers and enterprises have been acknowledged. However, I propose now to revise the scheme to take account of the introduction of pay-related arrangements in the social welfare code. Discussions have been held with the Irish Employers' Confederation and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions about a number of amendments to the scheme which I have in mind and I plan to introduce amending legislation later in the year with the intention of having the changes operative from April 1979.
I now come to the subject of training on which my Department propose to spend approximately £16¼ million, or almost 50 per cent of total expenditure this year. This is an indication of the Government's serious commitment to industrial training.
In 1977 AnCO trained 12,837 adults and apprentices. This training was provided in 13 permanent training centres and four temporary centres and in facilities provided by public and private companies, State-sponsored bodies, educational establishments and other institutions. In addition, 24 mobile training units visited areas remote from the main centres providing short introduction-to-industry courses which last from four to eight weeks each, accommodating 12-24 trainees at a time. Almost 70 different types of courses, varying in length from two weeks to eight months were provided.
Total operation expenditure by AnCO in 1977 amounted to over £16 million. The exchequer provided £9.5 million and the balance, £6.5 million, came by way of grants from the European Social Fund.
For 1978 the Exchequer allocation for AnCO's training activities is fixed at £11,938,000. As much of their expenditure will qualify for matching grants from the European Social Fund AnCO expect to have a total of almost £22½ million available for operational expenditure in 1978. With these resources they expect to train almost 15,000 people, including 1.639 apprentices, during 1978. AnCO will also receive an Exchequer grant of £3.5 million for capital expenditure in 1978. A new training centre has already been opened this year in Tallaght, County Dublin to provide 400 training places when in full operation, and a new centre will open later this year in Athlone to provide over 200 training places. Work is also expected to commence this year on the construction of new training centres, in Cork, 700 places. Finglas, 400 places and Sligo, 150 places. A site for an additional training centre in the south Dublin area is also being sought at present. By the end of this year AnCO expect to have a total capacity of over 3,000 places in their own training centres and 1,386 of these will be reserved for first-year apprentices.
There are now 16,542 apprentices registered with AnCO. In co-operation with the Vocational Educational Committee block release courses were organised last year for 4,349 apprentices and day release courses for 4,853. In the same period 944 first-year apprentices were trained on off-the-job courses at AnCO training centres and 158 in facilities provided by other bodied. AnCO also admitted 220 out-of-work apprentices to their centres for further training in 1977. It is planned to train 1,162 apprentices on off-the-job courses in AnCO training centres and a further 477 in facilities provided by other bodies during 1978.
Progress with the new apprenticeship scheme continued during 1977. This new scheme, which commenced on 1 September 1966, is being implemented gradually over a five-year period to 1981. It will ensure that every apprentice in the designated trades will have comprehensive skill, training and education on a wider level, and that the skilled manpower needs of the economy will be adequately catered for.
There has been some controversy recently about the arrangements for the release of AnCO first-year apprentices into the educational system. Discussions on the matter have been taking place with the Department of Education and I am hopeful of finding a solution.
The community youth training programme, which has as its aim the provision of opportunities for young people to undergo training and to participate in work projects beneficial to local communities, provided training for 598 school leavers, redundant apprentices and craftsmen in 1977. The aim is to train 1,800 young people under the programme in 1978. Of the 86 projects undertaken throughout the country in 1977, the nature of the work ranged from the renovation of community halls and old people's homes to work on recreational facilities and amenity areas.
All AnCO training courses are open to both men and women and the same training allowances are payable to both sexes. In 1977, AnCO trained 2,684 women, an increase of 92 per cent on the previous year.
Despite the expansion of AnCO direct training activities the primary responsibility for training falls on the employer. There are now over 3,000 training managers and training instructors working in Irish industry. Industry is encouraged and assisted to define its own training needs and to prepare and implement programmes to meet those needs through levy/grant schemes which are devised by industrial training committees representatives of trade union, employer and educational interests and catering for designated industries. In general the schemes provide that every firm above a certain size must pay a levy of between 1 per cent and 1.25 per cent of its total payroll into a special fund administered by AnCO. Grants of up to 90 per cent of levy paid can be recouped by firms which carry out specified training activities. The remaining 10 per cent of levy is retained by AnCO as a contribution towards administrative expenses and the cost of providing a training advisory service. There are levy/grant schemes operating now in the textiles, clothing, footwear, food, drink and tobacco, engineering, construction, printing and paper and chemical and allied products industrial sectors.
There are 117 AnCO training advisers working out of Dublin and from regional offices. These advisers service 10.887 companies with a total workforce of 297,471 people. During 1977, the training advisers made 16,768 visits to 5,861 firms. It is estimated that 50,000 workers were in training within firms in 1977.
The substantial increase in both the current and capital Exchequer allocations to AnCO this year demonstrates a determination on the part of the Government to ensure that economic progress will not be impeded through lack of essential skills, or the adequate development of those skills in any industrial sector. I am confident that the ambitious expansion plans of AnCO for 1978 will go a long way towards ensuring that the Government's objective in this regard will be realised. There is a commitment in the Government's manifesto and in the recent White Paper on National Development to ensure that AnCO's training facilities will be expanded as rapidly as possible over the next few years. I would however also appeal to industry to consider seriously their skill requirements in the longer term so as to ensure that their present intake of apprentices will be adequate to cope with the requirements of a steadily growing economy in the years ahead.
AnCO are playing an important role in catering for the needs of young people. Apart from the specific programme aimed at young people, such as apprenticeship training and the community youth training programme, more than 75 per cent of all AnCO trainees are now under 25 years of age.
To raise the standards of practical management in Ireland through the provision of instruction in modern management techniques is the main objective of the management development activities of the Irish Management Institute. If the increased State investment in the training of workers is to be productive, we must have the highest attainable level of management to ensure that the skills of the workforce are used in the most efficient way. The Irish Management Institute are aware of the role which managers must play in this regard and the objective of the Government grant is to encourage the development and training of managers by the IMI.
The £375,000 which is provided in the Estimate for 1978 will, it is expected, be supplemented by grants from the European Social Fund. The fund grant approved for 1977 was £300,000.
In the latter half of 1977 the institute embarked on a new departure with a business development programme. The objective of this programme is to give concentrated attention and advice to small-and medium-size companies to ensure profitable expansion and consequent increased permanent employment.
A grant of £460,000 is provided for the Council for the Education, Recruitment and Training for the hotel, catering and tourism industries. The Exchequer provision is supplemented by aid from the European Social Fund, of which £280,000 was approved for 1977.
A national recruitment campaign aimed at young persons of intermediate and group certificate standard is conducted by CERT each year for those interested in training at craft level—to become chefs, cooks, waiters, waitresses and house assistants. In May 1977 interviews were held in 78 centres throughout the country and 421 trainees recruited. A total of 1,010 young people were in training at nine centres last year.
CERT also administer a programme of in-service training for the hotel, catering and tourism industries which in 1977 catered for training needs of 2,266 persons. A placement service operates within CERT and continues to be a central element in their over-all operation.
The need for the continued separate financing of CERT for training in the hotel and catering industry rather than through the main grant for industrial training paid to AnCO was raised with me some time ago. The files show that this particular issue also engaged the minds of my predecessors in office. I have decided that the matter should be examined and for this purpose I have set up a review group representative of my own Department, CERT, AnCO, Bord Fáilte and the Department of Education.
To conclude this portion of this review about employment and manpower policy, I should say that there is general recognition of the major role which economic growth has to play in achieving our employment targets. However, indications in other countries and indeed in Ireland in recent years are that economic growth on its own is not sufficient to produce a full employment situation. For example, there has been the underlying trend of rising unemployment in a number of major industrialised countries since the late 1960s despite unprecedented growth rates. Factors explaining this include the development of technology, the relationship between labour costs and capital costs, employment shifts from the industrial to the service sector, new jobs being taken up by new entrants to the labour force rather than by the unemployed, and mismatches between the kinds of jobs available and the kind which persons sought or were equipped for.
Manpower policy has a major role to play in overcoming these difficulties and will have a major role to play in an employment strategy. To promote study and discussion of matters like those I propose to reconstitute a committee similar to the former manpower advisory committee. Subjects that suggest themselves for consideration by the committee could include the role of manpower policy in the economic scenario envisaged in the White Paper, how to obtain better information on and a better understanding of the labour market and how our existing schemes might be expanded or adapted to fit the ambitious economic and employment objectives to which we are committed. I propose to act as chairman of the committee, which will be known as the Manpower Consultative Committee, with a senior officer of my Department serving as my deputy.
The next section of my statement will relate primarily to the Department's role in relation to the worker in employment, to such matters as safety, health and welfare, protective legislation, worker participation, and so on. While securing an improvement in the employment situation is a top priority I would like to make it clear that I am not losing sight of the objective of improving working conditions and the working environment. My approach to working conditions and the work environment is based on three principles:
work should respect the workers' life and health: this is the problem of safety and health in the workplace;
work should leave men and women free time for rest and leisure; this is the question of hours of work and their adaptation to an improved pattern for life outside work;
work should enable men and women to serve society and achieve self fulfilment by developing their personal capacities; this is the problem of the content and the organisation of work.
My Department are responsible for an ever-increasing number of regulations in relation to industrial safety and for the activities of a growing team of industrial inspectors. It is supported by the activities of bodies such as the National Industrial Safety Organisation and by extensive use of posters and explanatory leaflets. However, despite all these, and the efforts and exhortations of Government, trade union and employer representatives, accidents and illness associated with work remain. The figures are disturbing because they include a high proportion of the most commonplace and clearly avoidable accidents, such as the falling of persons or objects and accidents occurring during handling operations.
We already have in this country a detailed set of laws and regulations covering occupational safety and health. Activities designed to arouse awareness, to educate, advise and lead to the adoption of all possible measures are at least as important as legislation for penalties and so on. This is the idea behind certain clauses in the Safety in Industry Bill which I have recently introduced. As the Safety in Industry Bill is being debated extensively by the House, on its Second Reading and will continue to be discussed in its later Stages, I do not think I should go into its provisions in this debate.
I might also refer at this stage to another piece of safety legislation which is in preparation and deals with standards for the safety, health and welfare of persons employed on offshore installations in the exploration and exploitation of our natural resources. In addition to setting out general safety provisions giving me power to make technical regulations, the Bill will provide, on somewhat similar lines as for factories, for worker participation through the appointment of safety representatives or the election of safety committees at the installations. Preparation of the Bill is well advanced.
The main machinery in the State which deals with the enforcement of our occupational safety and health legislation is the industrial inspectorate of the Department of Labour. My Department also provides money to the voluntary National Industrial Safety Organisation. The provision in the Estimate for this organisation is £20,000 as compared with £15,000 for 1977.
The industrial inspectorate is an advisory service as well as an inspection body; in general, employers and workers do not have adequate recourse to this source of expertise. This point is brought out in the 1977 report on the activities of the inspectorate which has just been published. The inspectors' aim is to visit each factory once a year. Work places presenting special hazards are visited more frequently. This is a satisfactory level of inspection and will continue to be my policy while stressing that, where the indications warrant it, more frequent inspections of accident "black spots" will be made. I will continue to prosecute offenders for serious breaches of the Acts and Regulations.
The National Industrial Safety Organisation has the function of educating both workers and employers in the industrial area in regard to job safety. The organisation has a plentiful supply of literature and leaflets on all the main aspects of worker safety. They organise lectures for the staffs of firms and in general can be relied on as a useful source of advice. The function of the organisation is primarily educational.
The main thrust of our present legislation is to protect workers in industry. It will be necessary to examine in greater detail what protection exists and what new measures will be necessary for the protection of workers elsewhere. I am examining a proposal to establish a working party to consider and make recommendations about safety legislation for all persons at work and will make an announcement in the matter when replying to the debate on the Safety in Industry Bill.
My Department's inspectorate is also concerned with occupational health. Occupational health studies the interrelationship between health and work. Its highest priority must be the prevention of sickness and death due to industrial disease. It is my intention to continue the type of service provided by the Department of Labour which has yielded up to now valuable information in relation to occupational hygiene conditions, PVC, and the manufacture, use and storage of various chemicals in industry.
I have been taking steps to improve our knowledge of the situation of industrial disease in Ireland by seeking the co-operation of the medical profession in the matter of the notification of diseases whether or not they are diseases which must by law be brought to my attention and, indeed, in situations where there is only a reasonable suspicion of disease. I have asked the Department's industrial medical adviser, a doctor specialised in occupational health, to give priority in his programme to the areas of fact finding, education and the provision of information and advice.
In administering these services I believe it is appropriate to attempt to take a view of work time as part of a more general appraisal which would see work time in its relationship to economic and social development. In this context, policy with regard to hours of work would aim not only at protecting workers against the hazards of excessively long hours, but would also become an element in a broader economic and social policy embracing measures to combat unemployment and the quest to improve the worker's life.
In addition to the enforcement of that statutory minimum wages and conditions laid down in employment regulation orders and registered employment agreements, I have the responsibility of ensuring that the worker protection measures set out in various acts are complied with. These include the Conditions of Employment Act, the Holidays Act, the Unfair Dismissals Act, the Minimum Notice and Terms of Employment Act, and the Protection of Young Persons (Employment) Act.
Although the Department provide a considerable amount of information on the provisions of these Acts, I have noted a substantial lack of awareness on the part of workers, especially young workers, of their rights under the law and under employment regulation orders. It is my intention to seek to improve that situation. The policy of rigorous inspection of premises covered by employment regulation orders which produced arrears of pay of £40,000 in the past 12 months will be continued and intensified to the extent that resources permit.
Apart from such questions as protecting workers from occupational accidents and diseases and specifying minimum holidays and other entitlements, I believe there is a case for examining more closely the possibilities of fitting working conditions to the worker rather than making the worker always adapt to the conditions of the workplace. The subject in many respects is one which does not lend itself to legislation.
A certain amount of research and developmental work is being done by the Dublin-based European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions. The foundation has chosen amongst its top priorities such problems as the economic and social consequences of shiftwork and data processing in the service sector. We will be co-operating with the foundation and with other institutions such as the Irish Productivity Centre in exploring what needs to be done to make the work environment accord better with human needs.
Before being elected to office, this Government made clear their commitment to promoting meaningful employee participation in management decisions affecting workers' interests. However, the attainment of this aim does not rest solely with the appointment of elected employee directors to State boards. For instance, our recent White Paper on National Development made it clear that the Government would be happy to support any additional moves by the social partners in exploring ways and means of implementing arrangements such as those suggested in the draft national agreement on works councils, drawn up by a sub-committee of the Employer-Labour Conference.
In the meantime, I am pressing ahead with implementation of the Worker Participation (State Enterprises) Act, 1977. My target is to have elections held this year in as many of the seven State bodies covered by the Act as possible. Preparation of the various statutory instruments, which have to be made before the scheme can be brought into operation, is now nearing completion. The regulations on election procedures have already been made. I hope to be in a position very shortly to present for approval by the Oireachtas statutory orders altering the size of the boards of certain of the bodies concerned. This is an essential step to enable the elections to proceed. The orders will indicate how many seats will be represented by the one-third proportion of each board which will be set aside for candidates elected by the workers.
The system we have adopted for the State companies may require change and revision in the light of practical experience. For that reason I arranged to have the operation of the scheme monitored by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions in conjunction with the Irish Productivity Centre. It would be my intention to extend the Act to other State bodies as soon as possible, after we see how the elections have worked out in practice.
The Government are committed to working towards the elimination of discrimination in employment.
Under the Anti-Discrimination (Pay) Act, 1974, women doing like work with men are entitled to equal remuneration. The Employment Equality Act, 1977, makes it unlawful to discriminate in employment on grounds of sex or marital status as regards recruitment for employment, working conditions and also in access to training and promotional opportunities. People complaining that they have been denied their rights under these Acts can have recourse to the procedures of the Labour Court.
The Employment Equality Agency, which has been in operation since 1 October 1977, has been assigned the task of working in the public interest towards the elimination of discrimination in employment and promoting equality of opportunity in employment as between men and women. The agency will also be monitoring the working of both the 1974 and the 1977 Acts and will be reporting on the position in due course. In the meantime, I shall give careful consideration to any proposals which the agency may make to me.
The agency is at present engaged, at my request, on a review of those sections of the Conditions of Employment Act, 1936, which prohibit the employment of women in industrial work at night.
With the establishment of the agency as a statutory body and as my Department are paying a grant of £3,500 a year to the Council for the Status of Women, the position of the Women's Representative Committee needs to be considered so as to avoid overlap of functions. I extended the term of office of this committee to December 1978; during this period its future role will be reviewed. The Committee has done valuable work over the past three years and has made a number of submissions to Government and semi-State bodies on various issues of concern to women.
I will conclude this part of my speech by referring to two other pieces of legislation which I hope to introduce in the near future. The first will give effect to the European Communities' directive on the approximation of the laws of the member states relating to the safeguarding of employees' rights in the event of transfers of undertakings, businesses or parts of businesses. The second will amend the Truck Acts, 1831 to 1896, to facilitate the payment of wages by cheque.
In the next part of my statement I propose to refer to my Department's involvement in the European Communities, and I will deal specifically with the European Social Fund and the EEC social regulations for transport. I shall also touch briefly on the other international bodies with which the Department are concerned—International Labour Organisation, Council of Europe and OECD.
The over-riding social problem of the Community in the past few years has been the vast number of workers, now over 6 million in the member states, suffering unemployment. Attention to this problem has been a constant theme in the various Community institutions and meetings.
The European Council of Heads of Governments has discussed the unemployment situation at all its recent meetings. The March 1977 Council in Rome proposed that the matter should be discussed at a meeting of the Tripartite Conference, consisting of Finance Ministers, Ministers for Social Affairs and employer bodies and trade unions. The June 1977 Council in London requested the Commission to pay special attention in its work to the problem of structural unemployment among young people.
The meeting of the Tripartite Conference proposed by the European Council of March 1977 was held in June 1977. The views expressed at that conference, by the various groupings represented, were divergent but it was generally agreed that further studies would be necessary in regard to the restraints imposed by the international situation; the promotion of public or private investment; different means of work sharing; the role in employment creation of the tertiary sector.
The conference agreed that these studies should be carried out through the Standing Committee on Employment which represents Ministers for Social Affairs and the Social partners, and the Economic Policy Committee.
The Social Affairs Council of Ministers, on 28 October 1977, considered a Commission communication concerning the employment of young people and invited the Commission to prepare detailed proposals for Community aid for programmes designed to encourage youth employment.
The Standing Committee on Employment, at a meeting in November 1977, agreed that the Commission should work out proposals for the creation of new Community aids, including job subsidies, to promote employment particularly for young people. The Standing Committee on 21 March 1978 discussed employment problems with particular reference to the possibilities of work sharing, for example, shorter working hours, longer holidays, restrictions on overtime, early retirement and so forth. There was general agreement that the best way to create jobs is by economic growth and investment but that work sharing measures could help in the short term and that the next tripartite conference should discuss this aspect further. The EEC summit meeting in Copenhagen on 7 April 1978 agreed with these conclusions of the standing committee and expressed their deep concern over the persistent high rate of unemployment. The standing committee met last week to discuss employment in the tertiary sector.
The Irish delegations which attended these various Community meetings argued strongly for greater Community action in the field of employment and particularly for the application of Community measures to help ease unemployment problems in the weaker regions of the Community. The EEC Commission have very recently submitted proposals to the Council of Ministers for aid from the European Social Fund towards measures taken by member countries to relieve youth unemployment. I will give more information about these proposals in a few moments when I am speaking about the European Social Fund.
The EEC Council of Social Affairs Ministers are continuing their programme of work to improve conditions of workers throughout the Community. Some of the principal proposals being considered at present which impinge upon labour legislation and other functions of my Department are: a proposed Community action programme to deal generally with safety and health at work; a draft directive on the protection of the health of workers occupationally exposed to certain chemical hazards such as vinyl chloride monomer; a draft directive on the use of electrical equipment in explosive atmospheres; a proposed directive on harmonisation of laws of member states to combat illegal immigration and illegal employment; a proposed directive amending existing Community law on classification packaging and labelling of dangerous substances; a proposed directive on protection of workers in the event of insolvency of employer.
My Department continue to service the Commission and Council committees and working groups dealing with such proposals, with a view to influencing Community legislation and policies and safeguarding Irish interests.
My Department are also the central Government agency for the formulation and transmission to the European Commission of applications for assistance from the European Social Fund. Assistance from the fund has heretofore been directed to training, retraining and resettlement, usually on the basis of matching State expenditure on such services where they qualify for aid from the fund. I propose to give a progress report on the benefits we have received from the fund and some information on recent changes in the operation of the fund and about recent Commission proposals for further changes.
We have done well from the social fund and have succeeded in getting approvals for higher amounts each year since 1973. We have also, with the exception of 1975, increased each year the percentage we got of total social fund payments. For operations carried out in 1973 social fund assistance amounting to £4.1 million was approved. For 1974 operations the amount rose to £7.0 million, for 1975 to £9.4 million and for 1976 to £13.0 million. The figure for 1977 operations is £19.7 million.
As regards our share of the fund's budget, our approved operations accounted for about 5.4 per cent of the total fund in 1973 and the 1977 figure is expected to be about 8.2 per cent. From 1978 onwards the adoption of the new European unit of account will have the effect of reducing somewhat the percentage of the total fund budget we will receive because of the decline in the exchange value of sterling over the past few years.
A total of 18 applications, amounting to about £33 million, have been submitted to date to the Commission in respect of operations commencing in 1978. In some cases the amounts requested are provisional.
As Deputies may be aware, the rules governing the social fund were reviewed by the Council of Ministers in the summer of 1977. The revisions made have in general enabled us to maintain our favourable position in relation to receipts from the fund. There have however been certain changes made which should improve our position. The most important change is that the rate of aid has been increased to 55 per cent, as against 50 per cent previously, for a limited number of Community regions including Ireland. We had hoped for a higher rate than 55 per cent, as the Commission had proposed 65 per cent but the Council of Ministers would not agree to go beyond 55 per cent. Procedures have also been adopted to accelerate cash payments from the fund —30 per cent of grant is now payable when an approved operation commences and a further 30 per cent when half the operation is completed. The long delays which have been experienced between approval of projects for grants and actual payments has been one of the most criticised features of the fund heretofore and we are hopeful that the new arrangements, when they are fully in operation, will mean a substantial acceleration in the actual cash flow of money from the fund.
At the summer 1977 review the Commission had put forward a proposal for a new type of aid to promote better working conditions and to help maintain and create employment. We have been urging the Community for some years past to make resources available, particularly to the weaker regions, for direct employment creation. The particular proposals of the Commission were not accepted but the Council agreed to an amendment in the fund regulations covering fund assistance to promote employment in regions with particular employment difficulties. However, a further specific decision by the Council of Ministers is required to activate this clause.
Since the 1977 review, the question of Community aid for employment creation in the interests of young people has been given extensive consideration by the various EEC bodies, the European Council, the Council of Ministers, the Tripartite Conference, the Standing Employment Committee and so on. As a result the Commission have now come forward with a formal proposal for the creation of a new social fund aid in favour of young persons. The proposal visualises fund assistance towards expenditure incurred in granting recruitment premiums and in financing programmes for recruitment of young people for newly created jobs in activities or services in the public interest, the aids to apply to young job-seekers under 25 years of age. These proposals are of course of particular interest to us having regard to our problems about employment of young people and the fact that we have a higher proportion of young workers than any other Community country.
We have an employment premium scheme for young people and we have been developing various schemes of Community-type work by young persons. The Commission proposals will, of course, now have to be considered by the Council of Ministers but I will be pressing very hard at the council for early and favourable decisions on the proposals and for speedy implementation of the new aids.
The European Social Fund, has always been restricted by relatively limited resources. The introduction of new aids on the lines now suggested by the Commission is unthinkable without a substantial increase in the finance available to the fund. The Commission have proposed a commitment of 110 million European units of account, or about £75 million in 1979 for the new aids. I will be urging, at the Council of Ministers, that these additional funds should be provided and, indeed, any other funds necessary to ensure that all reasonable claims on the fund, particularly by the less-developed parts of the Community can be met.
Under the Treaty of Accession Ireland was required to implement the provisions of EEC Regulation 543/69 on 1 January 1976, in respect of domestic transport operations. That regulation prescribes, inter alia, maximum daily, weekly and fortnightly driving periods, a maximum continuous driving period; daily and weekly rest periods, and control procedures. Because of the substantial increase in both capital and running costs which would have been involved Ireland sought from the Commission three successive deferments in the application of the regulation to domestic traffic; these were granted and the last deferment expired on 31 December 1977.
Following lengthy discussions at three Councils of Ministers it was agreed in October last that where any member state experienced difficulties in implementing certain of the EEC Regulation's requirements in its domestic road transport operations it could request the Commission for authorisation to adopt protective measures.
On application by Ireland for such authorisation the Commission agreed to the phased introduction—during a period of three years—of those requirements which, from an Irish point of view, were likely to cause difficulties. In the near future I propose to make regulations to give effect to the Commission decision and a draft of these regulations is under examination by the Commission.
I should like to avail of the opportunity to acknowledge the understanding and support which we received from other member states and from the EEC Transport Directorate during the protracted negotiations which led to acceptance of the eventual phasing-in arrangements.
The matter of implementing the EEC Tachograph Regulation 1463/70 remains outstanding. I should explain that a tachograph is a mechanical device which when fitted to a vehicle can record the speed at which the vehicle is being driven, the distance it has driven and the length of time it has been driven. Breaks from driving and the duration of breaks are also recorded. The use of the tachograph has been incorporated in the EEC Regulations as a most effective means of ensuring compliance with certain of the provisions of the Social Regulation 543/69. Strictly, under Regulation 1463/70 we should have been requiring the installation and use of the tachograph on certain vehicles used in domestic traffic since 1 January 1976.
The Commission have been pressing us to take action in the matter of installation and use of tachographs for some time past and unless we can make progress on the matter sufficient to satisfy the Commission we are liable to be brought before the European Court of Justice on the issue in the not too distant future.
The Government are anxious to fulfil our commitments on the social regulations generally and to avoid being brought before the European Court on the tachograph issue. While these regulations pose very severe problems for both employers and workers in the Irish transport industry, we accept that the Commission and our fellow member-countries have gone to considerable lengths to facilitate us in the painful process of adapting to the regulations. My Department have recently had discussions with employer bodies and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions about the adaptation problems.
The Government's aim is to secure acceptance of the regulations and their implementation in an orderly fashion with the minimum of disruption. However, the realisation of this aim will be far from easy. I intend to arrange further discussions with employer bodies and ICTU in the hope that some generally-acceptable solutions can be found to these most complex and difficult problems.
As in previous years an Irish tripartite delegation will be attending the 64th Session of the International Labour Conference next month. This conference will consider, inter alia, proposed new international instruments on labour administration—role, functions and organisation; freedom of association and procedures for determining conditions of employment in the public service; revision of the Protection against Accidents (Dockers) Convention (Revised), 1932, and hours of work and rest periods in road transport.
Ireland continues to support the work of the ILO in the setting and supervision of labour standards and working conditions throughout the world. Last year the US left the organisation in protest against what they described as a movement away from the traditional principles and procedures of the organisation. We regret this. The US were a founder member and by far the largest contributors to the finances of the ILO. With our partners in the EEC we are hopeful that it will be possible to overcome the problems which caused the withdrawal of the US. We shall also continue to strive to safeguard the principles and procedures of the organisation. Following the US withdrawal member states were asked to make a voluntary contribution to help the ILO over their financial difficulties. In common with the other members of the EEC, Ireland made an appropriate contribution.
My Department's involvement in the work of the Council of Europe is concerned with the European Social Charter. Member states are required to report biennially on the application of the provisions of the charter. The Sixth Biennial Report, covering the years 1976-77, is due in 1978.
In the fight against unemployment an increasingly important role is being played by the influential Manpower and Social Affairs Committee of the OECD through in-depth analysis, exchange of views, suggestions for possible lines of action and the 1976 recommendation on a general employment and manpower policy.
The urgent problem of youth unemployment was discussed last December at a high level OECD conference under the chairmanship of the US Secretary of Labour. I attended this conference. Ministers attending concluded that in order to solve the problem of youth unemployment special measures will continue to be needed for some years to come in addition to economic growth.
I turn now to the subject of industrial relations. Since the commencement of the national wage agreements in 1970 there has been a notable reduction in the number of man-days lost due to strikes. In that year over 1,000,000 man-days were lost. Since then annual man-days losses have been lower and only in 1976, when the bank strike alone accounted for 460,000 man-days lost out of a total of about 775,000, did the position revert to anything approaching the alarmingly large 1970 figure. It is estimated that in 1977 somewhere in the region of 450,000 man-days were lost due to strikes. The monitoring unit of my Department continues to alert me to disputes and dispute situations.
An assessment of the industrial relations scene during the past year reveals some disquieting developments which give cause for concern. There has been, for example, the incidence of unofficial strike action. It is exceedingly difficult to condone the conduct of those who resort to unofficial or wildcat industrial action. There are extensive agreed procedures for the resolution of grievances and ample machinery exists in the form of the conciliation service of the Labour Court, the rights commissioner service and the Labour Court itself for the settlement of disputes. Further protection of workers' interests is afforded by the workers' protection legislation.
Yet we have seen procedures and institutions repeatedly ignored, admittedly by a minority, but a minority which is determined to press ahead with disruptive action regardless of the consequences for fellow workers and the community at large. On occasions these minorities have been supported by other sections of the workforce for whatever reason— due maybe to a misplaced sense of loyalty. The end result has been the unnecessary damage to the operation and validity of a number of undertakings. It is remarkable that we have more unofficial strikes than official ones. Last year alone the approximate loss of 450,000 man-days included about 181,000 days, or 40 per cent of the total, that were attributable to unofficial action.
Different reasons have been advanced for this situation. In some cases there has been a breakdown in trade union discipline; in some cases it is said that trade union officials are out of touch with the shop floor. In other cases the action was brought about as a result of justifiable discontent about working conditions over long periods. There have been cases where management was clearly not devoting sufficient resources to the maintenance and improvement of communications with employees. I have no doubt that a well-developed personnel function which would maintain good relations between management and the workers can be of enormous benefit in identifying and heading-off potentially explosive situations at work.
At a time when unemployment is unacceptably high it is of the utmost importance that we should maintain our competitiveness on the export market and that we should do all we can to encourage increased foreign investment here. If we are to make progress in either of these areas it is imperative that a reduction be brought about in the incidence of industrial disputes.
At this point I feel I should like to refer to the idea, discussed from time to time, that the incumbent of the office of the Minister for Labour should carry responsibility for the settlement of disputes. More personal intervention in industrial disputes by the Minister for Labour has been advocated from time to time and especially in recent months. For myself I am always reluctant to adopt such a role, as it can so easily be seen or construed as interference with the dispute-settling institutions and agencies. The Oireachtas has authorised the establishment of that machinery; the trade union movement and the employers participate in it. To the extent that they constitute a majority on the Labour Court they control and operate the system, and this House votes the money to staff and maintain it. Besides, I submit that it is efficient and fair. Indeed, I am aware that features of it have been copied by other countries.
It should be used, not ignored or bypassed or undermined. Every time a Minister becomes personally involved in an industrial relations dispute he takes the risk of diminishing the status of the institutions and impairing their usefulness for the future. At the same time, I accept that on occasions, where disputes affecting essential industries and supplies are inflicting hardship on the community and where recourse to the dispute settling institutions have not succeeded in securing a settlement, it may in the public interest be necessary for a Minister to intervene.
It is clear that we cannot and must not allow the law of the jungle to operate in the industrial relations area. There must be order and discipline. Areas of conflict between employers and unions have always been part and parcel of the industrial relations scene. Is conflict inevitable? Is complete harmony between both sides of industry an unattainable goal? These are questions for continuing debate and argument. What I earnestly believe however is that by patient endeavour and goodwill the areas of conflict between the employer and the employed can be reduced, not at once but piecemeal over time. This is something which I suggest we should work towards.
Having said this, I believe that a long hard look must be taken at the operation of the existing industrial relations system. The Commission on Industrial Relations, the establishment of which I announced some time ago and the membership of which has been published, will be holding their first meeting on 30 May. While the range of their examination will be necessarily wide, I hope that the commission will find it possible to come up with positive recommendations which will lead to improvements in the industrial relations area. It will of course be open to the commission to issue interim reports on any issues which seem to them to merit urgent attention. It is also my intention that the commission should furnish an early report on the structure and operation of the Labour Court which has come in for a deal of criticism—much of which I believe to be unjustified—in recent times.
I would like to refer briefly to the problem of inter-union disputes. Disputes of this kind can prove to be particularly intractable, especially in situations where one party is not affiliated to the ICTU. It is a matter for regret that a few trade unions continue to remain outside of congress. I would hope that it will prove possible in the near future to arrive at some accommodation between unions which would lead to the evolution of procedures whereby these disputes can be settled. As I have said many times, we have far too many unions for our relatively small workforce. I have repeatedly pointed to the arrangements made available under the Trade Union Act of 1975 for facilitating amalgamations through simplified legal procedures. Provision is also made for the recoupment to the unions concerned of the costs involved. Since the enactment of the legislation there has unfortunately been little movement by the trade unions towards achieving a reduction in their numbers and only one merger has been completed. Some initiative is clearly called for to encourage desirable mergers. It is particularly necessary to get the message across to trade unions of the advantages for them and their members of coming together in larger units to cater for similar categories of workers.
I would like to see a strong and united trade union movement. As an earnest of their support also for such a development the Government have made available for trade union education in the current year a grant of £193,000. The grants which have been paid over the years to congress represent a sizeable financial investment by the State in trade union education and are indicative of the confidence which the Government repose in the role which a more informed trade union movement can play in the economic and social development of the community.
As Deputies will know, the Government, in their election manifesto set out a blueprint for economic and social advancement which will make a valuable contribution towards the easing of our two most pressing problems, namely, the reduction of unemployment and the lowering of inflation.
The first real test of our ability to cope with difficult situations came with the task facing both sides of industry in negotiating a new national wage agreement. This was not an easy task, coloured and influenced as it was by the restrictions on incomes and employment which went hand in hand with the period of economic recession. This first hurdle has been overcome. The successful conclusion of this agreement has demonstrated the will to preserve the co-operation between employers and trade unions which has existed over the past seven years through centrally negotiated national wage agreements. These agreements have demonstrated that this kind of co-operation is beneficial to both sides of industry and I am glad that this co-operation is to continue.
It is fair to say that this country has now begun to pull itself out of the trough of the economic recession and is already well on the road towards economic recovery. Progress has been made towards the achievement of the Government's targets in relation to employment and towards the reduction of the intolerable inflation rates of recent years. The success we have already achieved in these areas is sufficient evidence to show that we as a nation possess the resilience and the confidence in ourselves to face up to challenging situations, to decide on the options to meet these challenges and to carry through decisions and policies.
I am confident that, through the committed application of all our skills and initiatives, we can grasp and use to the full the opportunities for economic growth, better employment and the attainment of improved living standards for our people that now present themselves.
