Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 1:

In page 6, between lines 24 and 25, to insert the following:

“(b) by the insertion of the following subsection after subsection (1):

“(1A) Where a European Works Council stands established pursuant to the Transnational Information and Consultation of Employees Act 1996 in relation to the employment in which it is proposed to create collective redundancies, the employer or responsible person shall, in addition to the requirements of subsection (1), with a view to reaching agreement, initiate consultation with the European Works Council.”,”.

It is always good to see the Minister of State. As the Minister of State will know, we have been waiting for this Bill for some time. It is good that it is finally here, but there are a number of aspects which the amendments we have tabled will deal with and which I very much want to highlight.

Amendment No. 1 relates to an issue that is very close to my heart as a former trade union official. The European works council, EWC, legislation, frankly, is not fit for purpose. I know this on the basis of first-hand knowledge and from colleagues of mine who have highlighted real deficiencies to me. I also know it as a result of my time as a member of the enterprise committee, which has taken a very good look at the issue involved. We heard from employee and employer organisations, which expressed concerns about this issue.

Representatives of both Irish and European trade unions as well as Irish and European businesses' stakeholders along with the European Commission have identified that the Irish legislation transposing the transnational works council directive, the Transnational Information and Consultation of Employees Act 1996, as amended, fails to make it clear that disputes involving EWCs can be referred to the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, in the first instance, and then to the Labour Court for legally binding decisions. The Department appears to reject this argument and has pointed to recent referrals of EWC disputes to the WRC and, then, the Labour Court. However, and this is a key point, these disputes concern individual members of EWCs who believe that their rights have been denied them.

The Department's position does not address the points that EWCs, as collective bodies, do not appear to have right of access to the WRC or to the Labour Court, which means we are out of line with other EU jurisdictions. It is a very sore point among our friends in the trade union movement, and this legislation is not in line with what it should be in line with. We want to change that.

Substantial disputes can arise between EWCs and management when job losses are involved. In other words, collective redundancies. The amendment makes it clear that where Irish-based EWCs need to be informed and consulted about job losses, they will have access to the State's dispute resolution procedures if the need arises. This would be a step towards correcting the gaps in the legislation.

The Minister of State may take the position that the EU Commission will soon be publishing proposals to revise the EWC directive and that changes to the Irish legislation should await the outcome of the process. With European Parliament elections due to be held soon and a new Commission set to be appointed, it could be four to five years at the earliest before Ireland's EWC law will be changed. That is too long to wait to correct the problem.

My engagement with the officials of the Department, particularly at meetings of the enterprise committee, has been truly disappointing. What I sense is an ideological objection to collective bargaining in any form. As the Minister of State knows, we are one of only two countries in the European Union that do not have the right to collective bargaining. It is a major omission and failure on the part of successive Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Governments that they have not given us that human right. Collective bargaining is recognised as a human right, but we do not have that human right here. Even in respect of EWCs, the collective issue has not been addressed by the Department. This is something I have raised at meetings of the enterprise committee for at least the past four or five years.Each time, I have been fobbed off with a statement that the issue is being looked at and somebody will get back to me. When I raised the issue via a Commencement matter, I was told there is no issue. In fact, there is a really important issue in terms of European Works Councils. Anyone from the trade union movement will have made that clear to the Minister of State. The employer body of the European Union has acknowledged there is a problem in this regard.

Will the Minister of State take the opportunity today to deal with this issue? If he does not, if he comes back with the line about changes to the EWC directive, what he is really saying is that he will not deal with the issue for the next four or five years. We must do better.