Ms Nora Labo:

We would definitely support it, but we would also demand that union representatives would be allowed to carry out inspections in unionised workplaces. This has been a demand of trade unions in Ireland for a long time. That happens in other European countries and it would be of great benefit to workers if their representatives would also be able to be present during inspections to see what is happening.

We would also like the task force perhaps to address the fact that people who are housed by employment agencies do not have the same rights as normal tenants. They have scam contracts that allow them to be evicted with no notice and shifted around from one house to another. That could easily be discovered in an inspection.

We also want agency employment to be better regulated in Ireland because from what we see, in hundreds and perhaps thousands of cases, agency workers always have worse conditions than those who are directly employed, even though that is clearly illegal and could be discovered in a routine inspection. We also want to make sure that all workers in meat plants in Ireland are declared in Ireland so that their PRSI contributions are paid and that they have access to social security. They would be the priorities for the task force but I would like to insist that a union presence in inspections would strengthen workers' rights and their bargaining power with their employers.