Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)

The programme for Government contains a commitment to reform current law on employees' right to engage in collective bargaining to ensure compliance by the State with recent judgments of the European Court of Human Rights. As the Tánaiste will be aware, the Strasbourg court has ruled that the right to join a trade union includes the right to bargain collectively. In his party's election manifesto, the Tánaiste committed to introduce legislation to strengthen the rights of workers to engage in collective bargaining, as enshrined by the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. Indeed, his partners in government, at Lisbon II, stated that they would legislate to bring about collective bargaining also. When will we see legislation on this issue?

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