Ms Patricia King:

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions, ICTU, thanks the joint committee for giving it the opportunity to make a written submission on the heads of the Industrial Relations (amendment) Bill 2014. ICTU is the representative body for workers and their unions on the island of Ireland. It is a federation of 47 trade unions which operate in Ireland, with a total membership of 768,991 workers. Congress affiliates represent tens of thousands of workers in sectors which benefited for decades from registered employment agreements and who stand to benefit from the proposed legislation. The experience of trade unions is that many workers have seen a worsening of their situation as a consequence of the ruling of the Supreme Court in the McGowan case. This is because registered employment agreements no longer have application beyond the subscribing parties and, as a consequence, employers who previously abided by collective agreements are now refusing to do so. It has created an unsustainable race to the bottom based on unfair competition, with tenders for work based on bids involving wages, terms and conditions below REA rates. This is threatening the livelihoods of workers and standards in the industries affected. Congress welcomes the heads of the Bill as a significant step in restoring the balance.

Once enacted, the legislation will provide legal underpinning for the operation of single company and group of companies registered employment agreements. It will also put in place a system for registered employment orders. Congress supports the overall legislative approach and wishes to draw the committee's attention to a number of key observations and recommendations for amendments to the heads. The Bill does not provide adequate safeguards for workers from reprisals or threats where, for example, a worker or workers seek to negotiate or secure a registered employment agreement or report breaches of the legislation. Critically, there can be no rowing back on the whistleblower protections afforded under the Protected Disclosures Act 2014.

The situation of agency workers must be confirmed. They are entitled to equal treatment, pay and conditions, as established in an REA or REO in line with the EU directive.

The heads of the Bill do not make provision for a minimum pension contribution by employers, only by employees. Therefore, an amendment should be brought forward to provide for an employer contribution.

There is no provision for access by trade unions to members to discuss compliance with an REA or REO. Assurances are sought about the phrase "workers of any class, type or group" and it is essential that its meaning is that the REO has three rates of pay in respect of each of the categories.

Technical amendments are also needed. For example, the wording must be amended to allow groups of employees to be party to a registered agreement without the necessity to form a trade union.

The proposed legislation is unquestionably a major step forward. However, congress notes that the new framework does not address the deficit whereby Ireland, unlike most EU countries, does not have a system by which collective agreements can be concluded at a sectoral level and be made universally applicable for that sector. This places employers and workers at a disadvantage compared with their EU counterparts.
It is regrettable that in McGowan v. the Labour Court the Supreme Court did not comment on the constitutionality of the REA provisions in the Industrial Relations (Amendment) Act 2012. That Act provided for employment agreements, made between trade unions and employer representatives, to be given general application by being registered by the Labour Court and by statutory order made by the Minister confirming the registration of the agreement. It is worth noting that the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights require that collective bargaining should take place at the "level" where it is "effective". Given the nature of employment in many sectors, effective collective bargaining can only take place at sectoral level. This was a key point made in the Duffy Walsh report. The consequence of the McGowan ruling means that there is still no framework for collective agreements to be concluded at sectoral level, and this is the subject of a reference, by the ICTU and our affiliate the Technical, Electrical and Engineering Union, TEEU, to the European Court of Human Rights.
Finally, congress stresses that it is urgent and critical that legislative progress to give effect to the right to collective bargaining in line with the commitment in the programme for Government is made. We have set out in our submission our observations and recommendations according to the order of the relevant heads of the Bill.