Mr. Owen Reidy:

I thank the Chair and committee members. We are delighted to be here. I thank them for the invitation to speak on this critical issue. I am accompanied by my colleague Mr. Justin McCamphill who is the President of ICTU. As members will be aware, ICTU is an all-island representative voice and body of workers. Through our 46 affiliate trade unions, we represent more than 750,000 workers in all parts of the economy across the island of Ireland. In Northern Ireland we represent slightly more than 200,000 workers from all communities. We are proud of the fact that we are truly a cross-community organisation. ICTU seeks to co-ordinate the collective voice of workers and the trade union movement in our engagement with the Irish Government, other political parties and stakeholders in the Republic of Ireland and with the Assembly and Executive, when they are operational, and all parts of civic life in Northern Ireland.

We campaigned vigorously against Brexit and, after the referendum, we advocated that should Brexit have to occur, it should reflect the narrowness of the vote and therefore be incredibly soft. Given that we represent workers on both sides of the Border, we are concerned about the prospect of greater divergence of workers’ rights and employment law in the two jurisdictions. Brexit, specifically the type of Brexit chosen by the UK Government, has created the context whereby discussion and debate about the possibility of constitutional change on the island of Ireland have come more to the fore in some quarters. As an all-island body with members and unions from a variety of different backgrounds, we believe such a debate must be as inclusive and open as possible. We believe the variety of perspectives workers have must be articulated and to the fore.

Historically, in the case of individual employment rights legislation, there has been a level of consistency in practice in the two jurisdictions. This has been because much of the individual employment rights legislative framework originated from a variety of EU directives when the UK, including Northern Ireland, was a member of the EU. Whether it be the Organisation of Working Time Act, health and safety legislation or other legislation, there has been a level of consistency regarding its general application over the years. This has not been the case when it comes to a range of collective or industrial relations issues, particularly relating to the organisation and operation of trade unions. Some of the Thatcher era anti-trade union legislation unfortunately remains on the Statute Book in Northern Ireland. Unlike in Wales and Scotland, in Northern Ireland employment rights are a devolved matter. However, in our experience successive Ministers for the Economy in Northern Ireland have shown little interest in focusing on the development and improvement of employment rights. Certainly, I suggest this has been the case in the past decade and it has been a missed opportunity.

The current UK Government has recently introduced draconian anti-trade union legislation, although, given the devolution of employment rights, it does not directly apply to Northern Ireland. However, as Northern Ireland is unfortunately outside the EU, new and progressive EU directives on workers’ rights, including, for example, the important adequate minimum wages directive, will not have a direct effect and will therefore not apply in Northern Ireland, unlike in the Republic of Ireland. If transposed properly by the Government, this directive will promote collective bargaining like never before and require the State to develop an action plan with the social partners to make access to collective bargaining and unions at sectoral level more readily available to all workers. It has the potential to significantly improve our industrial relations infrastructure and increase collective bargaining coverage, that is, the proportion of workers covered by a collective agreement. Therefore, the committee will see, when it comes to the industrial relations infrastructure, environment and legislation surrounding important individual employment rights, and indeed collective issues around workers’ rights and trade union rights, with the continued absence of the Executive, more divergence will inevitably occur. Of course, this is precisely the objective of those who have supported and encouraged the hardest Brexit possible.

As an all-island body, we are committed to pursuing improvements for workers in their individual employment rights and their collective industrial interests. We therefore seek the full and optimum transposition of the adequate minimum wages directive in the Republic of Ireland, along with the implementation of the Labour Employer Economic Forum, LEEF, high-level group report on collective bargaining. In Northern Ireland we will be seeking the development of a comprehensive employment Bill that mirrors the directive, where possible, to seek to ensure that our members and all workers in Northern Ireland do not fall behind and to seek as much positive and progressive alignment of workers’ rights in the two jurisdictions on the island of Ireland as possible.

We note with interest the publication of the UK Labour Party policy paper, A New Deal for Working People, which will form part of its programme for government over the next period if the party is elected. Should the continued and unacceptable absence of an Assembly occur, workers in Northern Ireland will inevitably fall further behind when it comes to employment rights and workers' collective interests. This would be completely unacceptable.