John Halligan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Tomorrow is May Day, a day when trade unions and workers across the world unite in solidarity and in support of workers' rights. It is also 100 years since the 1913 Lockout, when Irish workers endured great hardship to secure such basic rights as the right to join a trade union and decent working conditions.

I doubt workers in 1913 could have foreseen the decimation of these hard won entitlements that is taking place today. Is the Taoiseach aware that Ireland is one of only three European Union member states in which workers do not have a statutory right to workplace representation? Whereas workers once stood up and were counted, there is now a growing culture of keeping one's head down and getting on with it for fear of being targeted by certain employers, albeit not all of them, as they take full advantage of the recession to have labour laws watered down in the name of economic recovery. Some unscrupulous employers are driving down wages, sacking workers and hiring others at cheaper rates, cutting overtime payments, demanding longer hours and ignoring trade unions. All of this is being done by stealth and the Government is doing little about it.

Is the Taoiseach aware that the Council of Europe watchdog, the European Committee of Social Rights, has found Ireland to be in breach of eight European requirements on employment rights? Far from protecting workers on low and middle incomes, the Government has aggressively gone after increments and pay for unsocial hours and is now threatening worse if public sector workers do not agree to its plans. Will the Taoiseach make a commitment to strengthen the regulatory framework of labour legislation and collective bargaining? As many Deputies are aware from their constituencies, the regulatory framework is clearly not solid enough to deal with current levels of exploitation and marginalisation of workers. Will the Government commission the OECD to investigate the full consequences of the bailout exit strategy it is pursuing in terms of its impact on workers' rights and their quality of life?

The Taoiseach will recognise that labour rights are human rights. The failure of the Government to enforce legislation which gives every worker the right to join a trade union without being intimidated or facing the possibility of being sacked is a gross violation of workers' human rights.

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