Tom Fleming (Kerry South, Independent)

The joint labour committees were introduced in 1946. Since then, they have been composed of employers and unions representing the workers. They make recommendations to the Labour Court, which then makes an employment regulation order. It is well-known that this is a tried and tested procedure, which has been highly successful down the years. It has survived the test of time and has contributed enormously to industrial peace in many sectors of employment in Ireland. Before the establishment of joint labour committees, many industrial and services sectors paid their staff peanuts and furthermore, insisted on highly anti-social working hours. The JLCs have introduced an element of civilisation into the wage structures and conditions of employment in the work system. Employers and employees in certain industries are involved in a highly disciplined fashion by the labour regulations. Low-paid workers were often unrepresented by trade unions and the JLCs were introduced to give them a floor for wages and employment conditions in a civilised manner.

The JLCs have served the country well and any changes contemplated will affect detrimentally the pay and conditions of employment of approximately 200,000 employees who are covered at present by employment regulation orders. Consequently, I support fully the motion being proposed by the Technical Group.

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