Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 27 October 2022
3. Deputy Louise O'Reilly asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if preparatory work has begun to incorporate into legislation the recommendations on collective bargaining made by the high-level group on collective bargaining and industrial relations. [53895/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe Tánaiste will have received the recommendations made by the high-level group on collective bargaining and industrial relations. Has preparatory work begun to incorporate these recommendations into legislation given that, as we know, the European Council has given the green light to the EU directive on adequate minimum wages and collective bargaining on 4 October?
Collective bargaining is an important element of ensuring good industrial relations in Ireland. Industrial relations stability comes from a voluntarist system where the State does not seek to impose a solution on the parties to a dispute but will assist them at arriving at one. This approach has served us well in resolving many complex and protracted disputes. However, our laws are very weak when parties refuse to engage.
As the Deputy knows, I appointed a high-level working group under the auspices of the Labour Employer Economic Forum, LEEF, to review collective bargaining and the industrial relations landscape. I want to record my appreciation to the group, the employer and trade union representatives and its chairperson, Professor Michael Doherty of Maynooth University, for their hard work in concluding this report. The report was published earlier this month and is now available to the public on my Department’s website.
The report is timely, as we need to keep abreast of developments at EU level, which require us to promote the capacity of social partners to engage in effective collective bargaining systems. The EU directive on minimum wages and collective bargaining was adopted by the European Council on 4 October and I welcome the directive’s focus on strengthening collective bargaining structures in member States.
The way forward is by no means predetermined and we have to work through the various legal hurdles and legislative issues in this area. I have asked my Department to carefully consider the report, consult with stakeholders and develop proposals for the Government in respect of its implementation. These proposals may well include examining how recommendations need to be incorporated into legislation. I am pleased to inform the House that this work is already under way.
I look forward to continuing to engage, through the LEEF, on the issues raised in the report and how we can continue to promote positive industrial relations in Ireland.
I want to join with the Tánaiste in thanking the members of the group. I want to particularly thank Patricia King, the outgoing general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, a former colleague and, indeed, a very good friend of mine. I wish her well in her retirement. I also wish Owen Reidy, the incoming general secretary, well. He has much work to do.
The Tánaiste’s answer does not fill me with an awful lot of optimism that this will get moving quickly. We need to expand the percentage of workers who are covered by some form of collective bargaining. It is clear that we need legislation to be able to facilitate this. It is not our job as legislators to organise workers; we know that. However, it is our job to create the conditions for workers to be able to organise. As I have said many times on the floor of the Dáil Chamber and in other places, the best way for a worker to ensure that his or her voice is heard at work is to join his or her trade union and be active in it. Unfortunately, however, the system as it currently stands facilitates employers effectively ignoring not just their trade union, but the will of their own workforce.
I join with the Deputy in thanking Patricia King for her service on the group and her general service in the past couple of decades. I interacted with her in many ways and on many levels in the past ten years or so. She is a very impressive person and I wish her the best in her future. As the Deputy is aware, Ms King will continue to be a member of the commission on housing and to bring her expertise to the table in that regard. In addition, I congratulate Owen Reidy on his recent appointment to his new role in ICTU.
To give the Deputy some assurance, we will get moving on this. The new directive is now European law. It is not a choice. We cannot ignore it, nor do we want to. The European directive requires us to have 70% or 80% of the working population covered by some form of collective bargaining. That does not necessarily mean being a member of a trade union or trade union recognition; it can be done through joint labour committees, JLCs, or different mechanisms. It is absolutely the case, however, that we need to make progress in this regard. We are only at about 30%, so the gap is large. I anticipate that there will be legislative change next year.
We need to move quickly on this. As the Tánaiste stated, trade union density is at a low level and that means protection for workers is at a low level because the two things are interlinked.
An issue that is not expressly related to this but on which the Tánaiste and I have corresponded previously is that agencies that are funded by the Government are also ignoring Labour Court recommendations when they do not have the funds to respond. That makes a mockery of the system. The quicker we can move to a system of collective bargaining and recognition, the better. As the Tánaiste stated, we may have different views on how that might be done, but we need to expedite this legislation because workers have waited a very long time for this. Trade union density being at its current level means that protection for workers is at a low level and that needs to change. Many of the practices that could be stamped out by having collective bargaining and strong unionised workforces were exposed during Covid. We need to move quickly on this.
I thank the Deputy. I know she will agree, however, that it is important that we get this right. That is why it will require further engagement with unions and employers. We also need to have particular regard to small business and how this would operate at the level of a company that might only have one or two employees. There is a lot to be worked out at this stage. It is not intended to make Labour Court recommendations legally binding. The Deputy will be aware of unions that have not respected Labour Court recommendations, particularly in the public transport sector. That does work both ways. The fundamental change that needs to come about is there needs to be proper legal procedures where employers refuse to engage. That is the change I anticipate happening both in terms of refusal to co-operate or participate or to appoint members to JLCs. As regards the wider issue of where employees want to be represented by a union but their employer states it will not even have a meeting with them, that is not going to be sustainable into the future.
