Deputy Gene Fitzgerald has sought and has been granted permission to raise on the Adjournment the loss of employment due to the dispute at Irish Industrial Gases. He has 20 minutes.
Adjournment Debate. - Irish Industrial Gases Dispute.
I thank the Chair for the opportunity of raising an issue of great concern generally regarding employment. At the outset, I ask leave to share my time with my colleagues, Deputy Seán Walsh and Deputy O'Dea.
I have acted very responsibly. For seven weeks now I have been aware of an on-going dispute affecting industry throughout the length and breadth of the country. This is causing lay-offs in some industries and protective notices being served in others. At a time of serious and difficult economic climate it is creating and threatening to create further unemployment. I do not raise this issue here with any relish. I sat in the Minister's place for many years, pilloried and attacked and advised by the experts then on this side of the House in regard to how problems of this nature could be resolved. The laissez faire approach which has overtaken our industrial relations in the past year is unbelievable. Strikes and disputes are allowed to take place and to continue, no matter to what extent the public are inconvenienced. No Minister for Labour can afford to say, in this House or elsewhere, that his policy is either non-intervention or intervention. No two disputes are ever the same, nor is the public inconvenience resulting from them the same. One must take into account many factors before one decides whether or not to intervene in a dispute.
I welcome to the House the Minister of State, who is a very hard-working Member. I say that very sincerely because I am aware of the efforts which he is putting into his portfolio. It is not fair that he should be saddled with the industrial relations portfolio in this House tonight. It is a very heavy one for any Minister to handle, but to apportion it to an already very busy Minister is not entirely fair. I do not want to go into the details of the dispute, which arose mainly because of a consultant's report which created a new grading structure in the clerical staff of Irish Industrial Gases. I know that they are a multinational company, part of the huge British Oxygen Company. This is a dispute on the interpretation of salary structure. There are two sides to every row of this nature — in this case the employer and employees. I have not the same access to the detailed information on this case as has the Minister of the day, but the seven weeks that the dispute has all been allowed to continue has caused immense hardship——
Hear, hear.
——and a lot of uncertainty. To a large extent a monopoly situation arises, although in my own constituency we have a small company producing industrial gas, a company which has a proud industrial relations record. Despite that, they do not fill all the gas needs of my constituency and the area of Cork — an area at present ravaged by unemployment and neglected by this Government to the extent that one would think they were saying "We are going to get you because you gave us a majority". That majority has already been eroded and an election tomorrow in my city would yield a different result from that of a year ago. I am glad to have been associated with and been a Minister of a Government which endeavoured to ensure that Murphy's Brewery during its period of turmoil over a year ago would be saved to the people of Cork and the tradition of a couple of hundred years continued. How glad we were when the brewery was taken over by Heinekin's. What must the new management be thinking when they have decided to get their own gas unit, to invest substantial capital, following on what Guinness's did some years back?
I do not want to name the companies in which protective notice has been served and people laid off, although I could list a large number in my constituency and throughout the country. I raise this issue more to help the Minister and the Government to take cognisance of the existing problems. Problems of this nature have not a habit of going away. Tradition has shown that the longer a dispute continues the more difficult and intractable negotiations tend to become. I am telling the Minister that a problem exists which is having far-reaching effects on very many people and will affect industry in the future. I will not name some of the companies at present exporting for further processing abroad. It is affecting the companies concerned and associated companies in other countries. This cannot be helping our image. I am aware that the Minister has said that his policy is one of non-intervention, but the efforts at settlement have been unsuccessful to date. These efforts may be continuing, but I am not aware of any worthwhile progress which might help towards withdrawing the protective notice already given.
We are well on our way to an unemployment figure of 200,000 and before this winter is over that figure will have been significantly passed. Why must we allow a situation to develop which will add and is adding further numbers to our unemployment figures? I repeat that I am not here in any mischievous way. I have had too long experience of the difficulties on the industrial relations scene. I have been extremely patient, as Opposition spokesman, in this issue and am urging the Minister to take a greater interest and to ensure at least that efforts are made towards finding a solution at the earliest possible opportunity.
I am grateful to Deputy Fitzgerald for sharing his time with me. He has outlined the background to this dispute and the reason for the present impasse.
I want to refer very briefly to the consequences of this dispute being felt in my own constituency, the mid-West region. I was contacted this evening by the personnel managers of two factories which, like Deputy Fitzgerald, I do not wish to name. They have said that their work force have been put on protective notice from Friday. In all, these two factories employ over 1,100 people. They are two of the largest employers in my constituency. They are both located in one industrial estate on the verge of Limerick city.
In the past few days I was contacted by other people in the management of various factories in and around Limerick city and in the mid-Western region generally. They told me they have put their employees on protective notice, or are about to do so if this dispute is not resolved this week. It is deplorable and intolerable that people who hold positions which enable them to exercise a certain amount of industrial muscle are prepared to turn the screw at this stage of the country's economic history. Like Deputy Fitzgerald, I appeal to the Minister not to look at this dispute in the narrow context of whether what he is doing is intervention or non-intervention, or in the context of the Opposition appealing to the Government to intervene in yet another strike, but in the context of the horrific unemployment figure and the devastating blows which have rained down on the mid-Western region.
I can tell the Minister of State and the Minister for Labour that, if unemployment gets much worse, the future of the system under which we operate will be at risk. This attitude of non-intervention and allowing unemployment to increase by default could almost be described as insane. I have information which suggests that, if people are laid off in the next week or the next fortnight because of continuance of this industrial dispute, some of them will not be taken back again. I appeal to the Minister to look at this in the broad context of the general unemployment situation. I urge him, with all the eloquence and sincerity I can muster, to intervene in this dispute and bring it to an end before more people are laid off.
There is little joy for us in having to raise this matter here tonight. This firm is located in the constituency adjoining my own. I am acquainted with this firm and I have been dealing with them for many years, I hope the Minister and the Government realise how serious the situation is for my constituency, particularly when we think of the numbers unemployed in the Walkinstown, Tallaght and Clondalkin areas. Earlier today we heard about the Clondalkin paper mills.
This strike has now been going on for over seven weeks. Many people have been laid off and many people are on short time as a result of the strike. Other industries are badly affected by the strike. The garage business, which is practically nil at present, is badly hit. Engineering firms are also hit, not to mention hospitals. I know there is a supply to the hospitals. I urge the Minister to take the necessary steps in the hope that it might be possible to get the strikers back to work. Over 200,000 people are unemployed. Most of the unemployment centres around the Dublin area, and particularly the areas I have mentioned. This strike is making the situation worse.
As Deputy Fitzgerald said, when we were on that side of the House he had to listen to advice about what should be done and the approach that should be adopted. As I said, this strike has been going on for over seven weeks. Some approach has been made but we heard very little about it. I hope the Minister will tell us something tonight. I recall seeing a programme on television some months ago in which the Minister participated. I think it dealt with his own constituency. Many young people asked him about work prospects. He told them that, no matter how they had tried, they should continue to try harder. If the Minister were in that position tonight what would he say to them? I hope we will hear something encouraging from the Minister. I represent the constituency of Dublin south west. Unemployment is rampant in Tallaght, Clondalkin and Walkinstown. I appeal to the Minister to make a special effort to have something done about this strike.
Deputy Fitzgerald began his remarks by labelling the policy of the Minister for Labour on industrial relations as laissez faire and standing aside. I want to say here and now that the Minister for Labour has a very clearly thought out position on industrial disputes which has been shown to work. An examination of the statistics for this year shows a very favourable comparison with statistics for previous years. I am making that general observation before coming to the specifics of the dispute.
As of this afternoon my Department have not been notified of any loss in employment due to this dispute. I do not say that to minimise in any way the gravity of the situation, because it is very grave. Having listened to the contributions made by Deputies on the other side of the House, people who have doubts about the gravity of the situation will have had their doubts dispelled. The situation is very grave. But it is true that of this afternoon we have not been notified of any loss of employment due to this dispute. Over the past few weeks we have had indications of possible difficulties and we have been informed of a number of cases of people being put on protective notice, but there has been no loss of employment as of this afternoon.
Deputy Fitzgerald mentioned part of the background to the dispute and it might be helpful to the House if I filled in some of the details.
The dispute at Irish Industrial Gases Ltd., which is a wholly owned subsidiary of British Oxygen Ltd., concerns a claim on behalf of about 60 clerical workers for improved salary scales. The union's claim was turned down at a Labour Court hearing in February 1982 following which further negotiations took place between management and the union, and an interim settlement of 5.6 per cent was paid to all clerical workers. The dispute continued, and threatened industrial action was deferred after the appointment of a mediator. The mediator's findings were accepted by the union but rejected in part by the company. Strike notice was served and the strike commenced on 2 September 1983.
The Labour Court again investigated the dispute and the court's recommendation was issued on 28 September. The Labour Court's recommendation was rejected by the workers in a secret ballot. Following that rejection the Minister for Labour requested the Employer Labour Conference to convene as a matter of urgency to consider the dispute. The steering committee of the Employer Labour Conference met on Monday, 3 October, and later that evening issued a statement to the effect that, as no grounds for negotiation existed between the parties, there was nothing which they could do at that stage.
Following contact between the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and the Federated Union of Employers a further formula for settlement was put to a ballot of the workers in Cork and Dublin on 19 October. The formula was overwhelmingly rejected by 57 votes to seven. It would be helpful if I told the House the formula put to the workers:
1. Without prejudice to the decisions of the Tribunal referred to at (2) below, normal work will be resumed immediately on the terms and conditions of employment applying at 1 September 1983, subject only to the provisions agreed between the company and the union in respect of the employees named at Appendix 1 (28 persons).
2. An independent Tribunal consisting of Mr. Tadhg O'Cearbhaill, Chairman, Mr. Terry Baker and Mr. Harry O'Hare shall be established to decide
"having regard to all factors, including the application of Clause 6 of the Interim Agreement between the company and the union if and where relevant, the appropriate point on the individual's agreed scale for each of the 47 staff members listed at Appendix 2".
The company and the union shall each appoint a person to act as Technical Assessor to the Tribunal.
3. The decisions of the Tribunal shall apply only to those listed in Appendix 2 and shall be binding on both parties.
The essential basis of the formula was that an independent tribunal be established which would adjudicate on the dispute and that in the meantime normal work would be resumed immediately.
The present position is that continuing efforts are being made to obtain a formula which will lead to a settlement. The company contend that the workers concerned are paid about 20 per cent more than similar analogous employments. On the other hand, the union are adamant that they are correct in pursuing what they see as a legitimate claim. This has resulted in deadlock.
I am concerned at the wider effects of this dispute and the facts I have given are evidence of such concern. The details of interventions listed show clearly that every dispute-settling facility has been made available to both parties in this dispute. Both sides are aware that the industrial relations machinery of the State continues to be available to help them reach a solution.
This dispute has highlighted the fact that an important part of our industry is dependent on one source of supply. That I believe to be an unsatisfactory situation which requires careful consideration. In those circumstances I have asked my Department to submit a report to me on that question and to do so in consultation with other appropriate Departments and State agencies.
Having regard to the potentially very grave implications of this dispute, I appeal to both the company and the union to make every effort to reach a satisfactory solution.
The Dáil adjourned at 8.55 p.m. until 10.30 a.m. on Wednesday, 26 October 1983.