Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)

At the outset of this important debate, I wish to express in the strongest possible terms the opposition of the Labour Party to exploitation and discrimination in the workplace, against any employee, whether full-time or part-time, contract or agency. We deplore the situation where a section of our workforce, namely agency workers, has not been afforded the same level of protection in our employment laws, from the perspective of job security, access to sick pay and pension entitlements or to other non-pay benefits, that are considered the norm for comparable employees working in the same industry.

The founding ethos of my party was to promulgate, espouse and acknowledge the principle of equality. The Labour Party, along with Sinn Féin, is tonight focusing on the plight and treatment of agency workers, including vulnerable migrant workers, who are being subjected to inferior pay and conditions and naked exploitation. I am proud to say that my party was founded by Connolly and Larkin with an ethos of promulgating, espousing and acknowledging the principle of equality. The motion I have moved supports and underpins the principle of equal treatment for all workers. It calls on the Government to protect the rights of agency workers and to support the introduction of the long-promised EU directive on temporary agency workers.

Trade unions across the EU have for many years been engaged in an ongoing campaign for equal pay, conditions and status for all "atypical" workers. They have achieved considerable success throughout the Union. Unbelievably, our Government and by extension our country is laggard in the important area of employment standards and conditions. Agency work increasingly means discrimination in the workplace, poorer pay and denial of sick, holiday and overtime pay. It is often used by employers as a means of avoiding many of their responsibilities. The vast majority of EU member states have dealt with this problem — the use by employers of agency workers as a means of paying lower wages and introducing lower standards — by implementing laws which provide for equality of treatment of agency workers and comparable staff. Most member states' laws are based on the "non-discrimination principle", which means that agency workers must receive the same terms and conditions as comparable permanent employees in the user enterprise.

Agency workers in Belgium must be paid the same wages, and be given the same terms and conditions, as permanent workers in the user enterprise. Spanish law was modified in 1999 to ensure parity of pay with that provided for in the collective agreement of the sector to which the agency worker is assigned. The law in Portugal has established parity of pay and conditions with permanent workers. In Greece, an agency worker's pay must not be lower than that set under the relevant collective agreement within the employment agency. The equal wages clause in the Netherlands can be varied, but only by a collective agreement with the permanent agency. The pay of an agency worker in France is linked to the amount of money a post-probationary permanent employee with the same qualifications would earn in that post. French agency workers are also eligible for an end of assignment payment equal to 10% of the gross pay earned during the assignment, as well as compensation equivalent to a further 10% in lieu of paid holidays, to which they are not entitled. French employment law also provides for a compulsory levy of 2% of payroll costs for training. Since 2004, agencies in Germany have been obliged to guarantee their workers the same pay and collective conditions as permanent staff in the user enterprise unless a collective agreement is made to the contrary.

The Minister of State, Deputy Kelleher, might suggest that I have confined myself to references to "old" member states. However, action has also been taken in countries which joined the EU in more recent times. Laws guaranteeing equal pay and treatment for agency workers have been introduced in the majority of post-2004 member states, including Poland, Romania, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Slovenia. A trawl across the EU shows that the United Kingdom, Hungary and, shamefully, Ireland are the only member states which have not respected the non-discrimination principle by legislating for equal pay and conditions between agency workers and comparable employees in the user enterprise. Hungary introduced a definition of "employee leasing" in its labour law in 2001. It clarified the contractual position and obligations of all parties but stopped short of imposing an equal pay principle. Many member states have gone further by reinforcing the equal treatment, or non-discrimination, principle with additional measures to ensure that agency workers are used for bona fide reasons. Seven member states have defined in law specific reasons for which an employer may have recourse to agency workers. Five member states limit the duration of agency work and four member states set limits to the sector and occupation usage.

In Spain, agency work is prohibited in certain sectors, including the public service and for "dangerous" work. Legislation was introduced in Poland in 2003 to provide for a maximum agency employment period of an aggregate of 12 months over a period of 36 consecutive months. The maximum permitted duration of the use of agency workers is connected to the reasons for use in Poland and Belgium. In Portugal, if the justification for the use of agency workers is the temporary substitution of permanent workers, the duration of that use must correspond to the duration of the justifying cause. In Greece, a user company may not employ agency workers for a total period of over eight months. If that period is exceeded, the contract between the agency worker is automatically transformed into an open-ended "contract of indefinite duration" between the agency worker and the client firm. Neither the objective nor the outcome of agency working in France can be to fill a post in the client company for a "lengthy period". In any case, the maximum duration is 18 months, including renewals. In Slovenia, agency workers cannot be used by the user firm "continuously", or to replace striking workers, or if there have been collective redundancies in the past three years, or in other cases determined by sectoral agreements. An agency in the Czech Republic may assign an employee to the same user for a maximum of 12 months, unless the employee requests a longer period. Collective agreements in Sweden are concluded with agencies' representative organisations by sector. Collective agreements typically provide that 75% of the full monthly salary must be paid regardless of whether the agency workers engage in work. The Swedish white collar agency agreement provides for 80% of the normal weekly wage.

Numerous EU member states have addressed this issue in one way or another, but Ireland is lagging behind. The Minister of State may refer to Ireland's body of employment protection legislation, but it is not working. The Government's wishy-washy amendment is of no use. I am not interested in mealy-mouthed speeches from the Minister of State's colleagues. We should not engage in tokenism in this debate. Tomorrow night, the Labour Party and Sinn Féin will give every Member of this House an opportunity to march through the lobbies — it will be time to put up or shut up. We will no longer tolerate Deputies who are all things to all people in their constituencies but do not express the views of workers when they get an opportunity to make decisions on important matters in the Dáil, to which they have been elected by their constituents. The problems to which I refer are being encountered in every county in Ireland. It is no excuse to say that difficulties are not happening.

Those involved in the trade union movement know that a great deal of sympathy has been expressed for the plight of Irish and migrant workers. However, I remind the Minister of State that sympathy does not buy the tea. We will give Deputies an opportunity to make their views known when the House divides tomorrow night. We do not want any nice token speeches from Members on the Government side. The amendment that has been tabled is as wishy-washy as any amendment I have ever seen. Perhaps the Government is playing for time, but we will continue to hound it until this matter is resolved. We will not accept professions of closet socialism from Deputies who act in a manner that is the antithesis of socialism. Fundamentally, socialism is about equality of treatment and parity of esteem when it comes to wages and ancillary benefits. The response of this House to tonight's motion is being watched extremely carefully not just by one corner of the trade union movement, but across the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and similar bodies. I remind the Minister of State that all his colleagues on the Government side are being given an opportunity to set the record straight.

The EU directive on temporary agency work has the stated objective of providing the minimum level of protection for temporary agency workers. The Union proposes to establish the principle of non-discrimination of working conditions, including pay, between temporary agency workers and comparable workers in the user undertaking as soon as the temporary agency worker has completed six weeks work in the same user undertaking. Is that the reason Ireland is lagging behind? Is the Government afraid to bring forward and sign up to the legislation? The Government should forget about the other countries.

Shame on Britain with a Labour government that has not implemented this. I salute Andrew Miller and colleague MPs in the labour movement who over the next week will try to bring forward a motion similar to ours in the House of Commons. Many Labour MPs must find a solid home on the Conservative benches.

If the Labour Party were part of Government, this is the first issue we would tackle and the first Bill we would put through. We would not worry about other matters that currently take priority in Government time. This is where we would come from. This is what we were founded for in Clonmel and this is why we were with the workers in 1913 to ensure the principle of parity and equal treatment would be put on the Statute Book.

This directive has been subject to amendments, but why should we have to wait until it is agreed before Ireland can legislate for the equal treatment principle? What is going on in Government? The vast majority of other EU states have implemented laws giving effect to the equal treatment principle. The equal treatment-non-discrimination principle applies in Ireland in respect of fixed-term and part-time workers. What is required, therefore, is the development of legal provisions that would provide that agency workers would be guaranteed equal treatment and be protected from less favourable treatment than other workers in the user undertaking.

It is against the background of a downturn in the economy that we in the Labour Party feel there is a particular obligation on all of us to ensure adequate measures are in place to prevent the exploitation of low paid and vulnerable workers, especially those employed through agencies. Temporary staff employed through agencies are particularly open to exploitation as they generally have little or no job security or access to sick pay and pensions or other non-paid benefit. The Minister should not doubt there is a growing anger among workers at the failure of the Government to enact domestic legislation to protect agency workers, and particularly at the Government's ongoing decision to block the enactment of the draft temporary agency workers' directive, which would provide protection for workers across all member states.

The directive was approved by the members of the European Parliament in November 2002 but has been blocked at the Council of Employment Ministers for more than five years. Sadly, this blockage has been led by both Ireland and Britain. There is no excuse for the Minister or the Government continuing to block this key directive, unless they want to continue to turn a blind eye to the exploitation of vulnerable workers. I hope this motion will put pressure on the Government parties to reverse their position and recognise as a fundamental human right the principle of equal treatment. In addition, we would like to ensure the right of workers employed by agencies to become members of trade unions, and to be afforded the right of trade union representation, that the circumstances in which agency workers would be employed would be restricted and that a maximum period would be specified beyond which the worker must become a direct employee.

Sight should not be lost of the fact that the exploitation of agency workers not only causes significant problems for the workers concerned, which is extremely serious, but also poses a significant threat to the rest of the workforce whose pay and conditions of employment will be undermined unless such exploitation is brought to an end. This is why I salute the trade union movement, and in particular SIPTU and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, who are determined to campaign for as long as it takes to secure the right to equal treatment for all employees, full-time or part-time, permanent or temporary, direct or agency. The majority of workers from EU states coming to Ireland are recruited by agencies as temporary workers. Without the protection of employment legislation, they can be, and are being, exploited by greedy employers. I was contacted about 50 workers let go in Galway, some of whom were informed by text message and others by telephone. I thought we had left 1913 behind. Are we entering a new era where workers can be thrown on the scrapheap at the drop of a hat? The labour movement will not stand for that and that is why we will champion the cause.

Irish workers are being displaced by this artificially created pool of cheap labour. A number of my colleagues have alluded to the Government adopting a somewhat hypocritical position regarding these goings on. On the one hand, it is publicly espousing social partnership as the way forward for the economy, while, on the other, it has been to the forefront of a small minority of four of the 27 member states of the EU that have opposed the draft directive, which would greatly enhance workers' rights in Ireland.

The directive is essential legislation if a level playing field is to be created for workers and for decent employers. It would set down under EU law a series of minimum rights for all temporary workers in Europe such as the right to access the host company's social services, the right to in-house health and safety training and the right to access permanent positions. It would ensure rogue employers would not be able to use the lack of legal protection for agency workers to circumvent employment protection by replacing permanent staff with such workers. It would also protect responsible employment agencies, which also need to be protected from unfair competition on the part of other operations.

Recently, the general president of SIPTU, Jack O'Connor, indicated there would be no further social partnership agreements unless the abuse of agency workers ends and their right to equal treatment with other workers is enshrined in law. The union has been to the forefront in organising a series of meetings around the country, as part of its campaign to obtain a better deal for agency workers. The Labour Party agrees with the president who indicated that the current situation is unacceptable and cannot be allowed to continue. He has asserted that we currently have a deplorable rented labour system, in which vulnerable people have no employment rights in practical terms and that the nearest parallel to the present phenomenon that affects tens of thousands of workers in Ireland is slavery. The president of SIPTU is dealing with this issue, with Patricia King and other officials on the ground. This is real, not pie in the sky. They can back up this assertion with facts.

SIPTU has acknowledged the existence of quite legitimate employment agencies functioning to facilitate the ebb and flow of business in various sectors of the economy, but some agencies are ratcheting down the security and equality of employment rights for everyone who works in Ireland. Sometimes this phenomenon is defended on the rather spurious grounds of protecting flexibility and meeting the competitiveness challenge. As Mr. O'Connor has said, this does nothing of the sort. The reverse is the case because it defers the day when we have to face up to the urgent need to up-skill about a half a million workers in our economy.

At our conference on 17 November 2007, I indicated, on behalf of the Labour Party, our view that the Government's opposition to the draft European directive in this area is totally misplaced and that the Government should immediately review its position. I referred to the Irish Ferries dispute and the GAMA construction scandal. I saluted the trade union movement on the strong stand it took, which mobilised mass public support and enabled a satisfactory solution for the workers involved. One must concur with the objective to establish a "threshold of decency" in employment standards for all workers in Ireland. The Government refers to the terms of the Towards 2016 agreement regulating employment agencies and agency workers, but my fear is that, while these measures are welcome, they represent moves which are of a cosmetic nature in so far as they are more procedural than substantive.

In view of the Government's continued opposition to the draft EU directive, the Labour Party's view is that new legislation is required to ensure that recruitment agencies are not used to circumvent equality provisions of employment and agency workers are not treated as second-class citizens. We must ensure that we do not end up with a two-tier workforce, where one set of workers have fewer rights, less protection and are paid less than others doing the same work. We gave a solemn commitment at the Labour Party conference to the wider labour movement that we would draft a Bill to provide agency workers with the same terms and conditions of employment enjoyed by full-time employees. We are ready to fulfil that commitment and will lay a Bill before the House in the next few weeks. We will challenge the Government to put up or shut up and, having drafted the Bill, we will ask the Government to take it in its time. We will co-operate in every way, as I have no doubt will the rest of the House, to ensure such legislation is put on the Statute Book in the shortest time.

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