Imelda Munster (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

That veto is something to be addressed if anything is to change. They have an opt-out. Is it not similar to the right to trade union membership, which I have always felt was watery as be damned? A person has a right to be a member of a trade union but the employer can opt out and does not have to recognise that right by engaging.

I accept there are really good employers, as Mr. Hynes stated earlier. Of course we accept that. We would not be here, however, if there was not a problem in the sector, and that is what we are trying to solve. With trade union rights, one could understand somebody who is depending on a job being prepared to put up with whatever he or she must because of the desperate need for the job. The employer might never recognise the union if it is not prepared to recognise worker rights in the first instance. We must get the basics right in strengthening the law so employers do not have an opt-out clause, whether that is not engaging with a union or a veto that allows them not to engage with a JLC. Is it not correct that workers are being left in this precarious position? Am I not reading it right?