Clare Daly (Dublin North, Socialist Party)

The protection of employees has been brought centre stage as a result of the recent cases highlighted by Deputies Joan Collins and Richard Boyd Barrett. While this badly needed legislation does not claim to be a panacea, it is a step in the right direction. If nothing else, it has focused attention on employee protection and forced the House to discuss the issue.

The Government has been shamefully slow to address a growing scandal that is emerging from the economic difficulties we are enduring. However, legislation alone will not sort out abuses by unscrupulous employers. We have in place a body of legislation that is either being actively evaded or ignored by many employers. In addition, the industrial relations machinery is so slow and toothless that unscrupulous employers are able to get away with their actions and are not called to account. In that context and given that it was May Day yesterday, the trade union movement has a responsibility to organise and champion workers. Rather than hanging on the coat-tails of politicians and expecting them to deliver, they should do the job trade unions were set up to do.

That said, legislation has a role to play in this regard. The Bill should proceed to Committee Stage at which point a number of additional measures should be considered. The first of these relates to occupations, the only weapon available to workers who seek to meet the threat of closure and defend their interests. I applaud the stance workers have taken in this regard. While the forces of the State were not called to intervene in the cases of La Senza, Game and several other companies, the workers who occupied Thomas Cook premises to save their jobs were forcibly dragged out of the building by agents of the State. The Government must provide legal immunity for workers who occupy places of employment in such circumstances, particularly where they have given a life of work to the company in question. Such protection should be built into the legislation.

A legal requirement should be also introduced to force companies to open their books. This would allow claims of poverty to be examined and verified or otherwise. We know such claims do not stand up in many instances.

We have also had the appalling spectacle of organisations such as KPMG, which advised La Senza on how to breach the legislation and avoid its statutory responsibilities, securing contracts with Departments. This type of doublespeak must stop and companies that engage in such practices should be excluded from all dealings with the State.

Access to the Labour Court machinery must be also accelerated. In terms of enforcement, what is the point in having a Labour Court adjudication if its rulings can be ignored, not only in the private sector but also by State companies and Departments? There are three instances of the National Museum of Ireland ignoring Labour Court recommendations, as well as other State bodies. If it is not led from the front, why would any private sector employer behave any differently?

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