Patrick Nulty (Dublin West, Labour)

I am delighted to continue the debate on this very important Bill and to put forward some ideas. One of the things I noticed both in the debate around this legislation and yesterday in the discussion around the Industrial Relations (Amendment) Bill was the very lukewarm response it has received from some elements within Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, although there have been positive comments. In particular, I want to take up one point made yesterday, I believe, by Deputy Harris - the record will correct me if I am wrong - when he described trade unions as a vested interest. Trade unions are not a vested interest. They are the expression of workers coming together to organise in their workplace to secure decent pay, conditions and safety at work. They are the most clear example of civil society coming together to protect their interests within the workplace. They are not a vested interest; they are an essential part of our democracy and an essential element of the labour movement, of which I am a member. That must be put on the record.

The lukewarm response from some elements within the conservative parties in this House shows a failure to recognise that the economic model pursued in this country over the past decade has failed - by that, I mean the completely deregulated markets, privatisation and the approach to taxation which focuses entirely on property based developments and property tax breaks. We need to move away from that model and towards a model which focuses on strong regulation, decent pay at work, good parental leave and other supports for workers, and on giving employees a strong input into their workplace through co-operatives and positions on boards of directors and so on. That is the correct way to go. In Scandinavian countries like Finland and Denmark as well as in Germany, there are movements towards this. We must recognise that if we want a productive workforce we need one that is secure and able to plan for the future and contribute to their place of employment.

The improved measures for agency workers contained in the Bill are a tremendous credit to the work of what I would say is the broad European left. In that context, it is important to remember the work of our outgoing member of the European Parliament for Dublin, Mr. Proinsias De Rossa MEP, whom I hope everyone in the House will acknowledge has been an outstanding parliamentarian over many years both in this House and also within the European Parliament. He strived to see this agency workers legislation being enacted in Europe but he also led the campaign here in Ireland to have the legislation brought into Irish law when the Fianna Fáil Government at the time was very reticent about doing so. I wish him well in his retirement. He has been an outstanding advocate for working people over many years.

The Bill is a response to the changes taking place within the workplace, not just in Ireland but more broadly, and that reflects its European dimension. There are some 35,000 to 40,000 agency workers in this State, 2,000 of whom work in the health service. While we can have a very different debate about why we have so many agency workers and why, in my view, we need to lift the moratorium on public sector recruitment to allow us to hire front line staff, at the least where we do have agency workers in employment we have to ensure they get appropriate pay and conditions and are protected under the legislation. This is why I am supporting the Bill, although, in the broader context, I raise the issue of the need for more secure employment.

The Bill ensures that agency workers will be treated the same as contract and permanent workers. I welcome the fact there are no derogations in respect of the qualifying period in terms of the provision of equal pay. While this has been criticised by IBEC, it is wrong on this issue. It is absolutely correct that the Minister has held his ground in this respect and the analysis of Deputies on the Government and Opposition benches who objected to this derogation not being in place is not correct. This legislation should hit the ground running.

Somewhat misleading comparisons to pay in the UK emerged during yesterday's debate. In the UK agency workers may find themselves on inferior pay and conditions for up to 12 weeks. I am glad Ireland is taking a step forward in that regard and that, although we do this in many other respects, we are not allowing ourselves to get caught up in a race to the bottom which suggests that what one has to do to get economic growth and investment is to drive down the pay and conditions of workers.

What is happening in the global economy at present is that there is a shift from manufacturing from European economies towards developing economies. However, the large manufacturing industries and companies will encounter a huge problem if that continues because workers in developed economies, because of the credit crunch and because access to credit cards and easy capital has been shut down, will find it harder to purchase the products that are being produced. Their purchasing power is being diminished all the time within the global economy, which will eventually have a huge impact on that economy because people simply cannot buy the goods that are being produced. Companies need to take a mature approach and recognise that short-term profits, often based on the exploitation of workers in other parts of the world, are not a sustainable model and not a desired way to develop and grow a business.

It is one of the great ironies and unfortunate aspects of neoliberal, right wing economics that its exponents seems to fail to understand how their own economic model works and that one can produce as much as one wants of a product, but if there are not people to buy it, one will inevitably be caught in a spiral of economic downturn. That is a huge challenge for the global economy. I am glad we are not getting tied up in that and that we are protecting agency workers.

It is also important to remember that having this in legislation recognises the fact it is particularly difficult to organise agency workers within trade unions, which is why we need a legislative base to protect them. Where there are agency workers, due to the seasonal and temporary nature of that work it can be very difficult to integrate people into the workplace. Having this strong protective legislative base for agency workers ameliorates that.

There are some 340 employment agencies in Ireland at present. There is a need for the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation to co-operate with other State agencies and the trade unions to conduct research on the implementation of this Bill and to make sure it is implemented fully and correctly. We remember the case of Irish Ferries and there have been other examples where people were not getting what they were entitled to. We need strong regulatory protocols in place when this Bill passes to ensure agency workers get what they deserve and need.

Given the nature of agency work, it can be difficult for people who are not getting their entitlements to speak out and speak up because they are not organised and are often in a very transient position in regard to their own careers and the labour market. We need the law to be an asset to those people and to ensure the regulations are in place and are being delivered on properly. There is no future for this country as a low wage economy. We need to ensure the jobs we are attracting are secure, permanent, regulated and give added value. That is how we will get out of the economic recession.

With regard to employment policy over many decades, in some ways it could be said the Celtic tiger period was an anomaly because of the temporary boom in construction work. What we have seen all along in employment policy, from the Telesis report to the Culliton report and others, is the failure to provide secure jobs, particularly for people in urban areas such as Cork and Dublin. When it comes to attracting investment, those areas have often been let down. We need to ensure that protections are in place and educational opportunities are provided to people so that we can attract high-tech secure jobs that are based on the knowledge economy, about which the Minister of State has spoken. That is why it is important that we continue to invest in education. If we do not do that and do not protect our most vulnerable young people by ensuring that access to third level education is maintained and there is no glass ceiling, the regulations we are putting in place in regard to employment will not be matched by opportunities provided in terms of education. We must take a holistic approach to employment and education policy and I hope we do that in the future.

I am glad to see that strong supports for agency work are being put in place. I also want to see this being tied to the restoration of the JLC legislation, on which debate began yesterday. It is a moderate piece of legislation. I would have preferred to see Sunday premiums being protected in the Bill. We need to see that the commitment in the programme for Government to legislate for collective bargaining rights is brought before this House. I have not seen it in the legislation programme for this session. I remind the Minister of State and the Government of the commitment within the programme for Government to legislate for collective bargaining rights. I put it to the Minister of State that we need such a package of measures. I wonder when that legislation will be introduced. Perhaps these comments can be taken on board and we can be given some indication as to when we can see that legislation.

We need a competitive economy, innovation and investment, and we need to attract and create jobs locally. However, to do that, we need a workforce that is protected, able to plan for the future and able to buy the products being produced. Workers can do so if they can demand fair pay, decent conditions and equal rights at work. This legislation is a small step forward in that respect.

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