Sandra McLellan (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Tonight’s Private Members' motion on workers’ rights reminds Members yet again of the power of capital and the willingness of the business class, supported by other conservative elements, to use State violence, excessive force and the law when, in their estimation, their class interests are under threat. William Murphy was particularly vicious and his intransigence and basic lack of humanity still has the power to shock. Murphy was unyielding despite the fact that the working men and women who were active during the Lock-out were living in some of the worst conditions and in the most abject poverty imaginable. Indeed in 1913, Dublin had the highest rates of infant mortality in Europe and the worst slums in the British Empire.

Fast forward to today, and crucially, as a modern State, we have dealt with the premature deaths of babies and very young children due to diphtheria, bad housing and malnutrition. However, when it comes to the issue of workers' rights, we still lack fundamental safeguards that are enshrined in law. For example, Ireland is out of step with other countries in that we still lack any form of protection for collective bargaining, and there is no requirement in law for an employer to recognise a trade union in a specific workplace or to engage with it. In that regard the Irish State is out of step with judgments of the European Court of Human Rights and with International Labour Organisation conventions.

Before the last election the Labour Party gave a commitment to introduce legislation that would address these important issues. Indeed, the programme for Government committed to "reform the current law on employees' right to engage in collective bargaining so as to ensure compliance by the state with recent judgements of the European Court of Human Rights". Thus far, nothing has happened with regard to that commitment. On the contrary, a number of forms of collective bargaining have been struck down in recent years, including joint labour committees, JLCs, in 2011 and registered employment agreements, REAs, this year. What is especially worrying is that in the case of the latter, the Supreme Court described collective agreements as "giving rise to the prospect of burdensome restraints on competition for prospective employers". Even more worrying, it went on to describe such agreements as "intrusive paternalism for prospective employees". As mentioned earlier, the right to collective bargaining was judged by the European Court of Human Rights essentially to be a fundamental and basic human right. It is exceptionally worrying, therefore, when the Irish Supreme Court describes such rights as intrusive and not in the interest of employers.

Unfortunately, one could cite an endless list of abuses against workers in the Ireland of today. Long hours, low pay, poor working conditions and abusive and exploitative employers are still very much part of the everyday landscape of work in Ireland. We need only think of the Lagan Brick workers, the Vita Cortex workers in Cork and the thousands of women and men who work long and hard in endless repetitive jobs for which they receive low pay, limited personal satisfaction and virtually nothing in terms of societal status and respect.

In keeping with the struggles of the workers in 1913, contemporary Ireland also has a chronic housing problem. However, that is not due to capacity or the state of the housing stock but to speculation, greed, bad planning, Government policy and corruption. We now have more than 100,000 people on the public housing waiting list throughout the country. That is an appalling indictment of the policies and priorities of this and the previous Government.

Sinn Féin supports this relevant and timely Private Members' motion and we endorse and acknowledge that the struggle for workers' rights is an ongoing struggle, especially in the current political climate where neoliberalism reigns supreme and the market and individuals take precedence over collective rights and the common good. In the Ireland of 2013 the poor are still with us, and issues to do with injustice, inequality and the general welfare of the working class are as pressing and as relevant as they were 100 years ago. Unfortunately, the William Murphys of this world are alive and living and they are as embedded in the political and social establishment, and just as willing to use the law or force to maintain their privilege, as they were in 1913.

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