Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, United Left) | Oireachtas source

Like many people I welcome the fact we are discussing the Workplace Relations Bill and the Workplace Relations Commission. We should include in our discussion the context of what is happening in communities. According to the 2014 OECD employment outlook report, Ireland has the second highest percentage of low paid jobs after the US. Portugal has the lowest percentage. Yesterday was world day for decent work and the Mandate union announced a dramatic reduction in the quality of employment in recent years. Since 2008 it has seen a 60% increase in involuntary part-time working, which is where workers want more hours but do not have access to them.

Mandate will be in the Labour Court on 29 October and it hopes the employer in the case will turn up. This is indicative of workers' rights at present. Frequently companies and employers do not attend the State mechanism for dealing with workers' and employers' rights. To my mind, employers have too many rights. We have seen very disturbing incidents recently, such as the Paris Bakery workers who were left high and dry for weeks on end without any income from social welfare. The company moved out and tried to take all the machinery with it. The workers tried continually to go to the Labour Court and use State machinery to resolve the issue. Eventually it was resolved with intervention, but outside of the State mechanism.

We also had the Greyhound workers, who were locked out from 17 June. In the process involving the Labour Court and the Labour Relations Commission, the employer did not recognise the recommendations given and contrived to lock out 78 workers. Those men were on the streets outside the workplace for three months. It was only resolved with court intervention, through the solicitors for SIPTU and Greyhound who came to an arrangement for the workers either to take voluntary redundancy or return to work, as 24 of them did under worse conditions than those from which they were locked out. This highlights the necessity to examine working conditions and pay and how the industry operates and cut across the race to the bottom. I do not know whether the Bill has the robustness to deal with some of the issues raised in the dispute.

We have another situation with 17 workers at Kishoge community college in Lucan. The contractor was paid €95,000 but only €35,000 has been paid to the workers. Issues arise with regard to relevant contract tax and the workers having to be self-employed subcontractors. The money trickling down to the brickies means they are being paid only €5 an hour, which they can prove with their bank accounts and what they receive in their wages. The company was able to lock out the workers on 1 September. The workers have no recourse and their union is trying to get into the Labour Court to resolve the issue and get them back to work. In the meantime, other workers are being brought in to do the work. Scab labour is being brought in, as happened at Greyhound. It is very difficult for workers on a picket line to see their work being done by people earning less money than they should be.

These projects were supposed to be about putting money back into the economy. I spoke to the workers in Lucan on Monday and they told me all the equipment and parts, including the concrete and machinery, are being brought down from the North, so there is no benefit to the local economy from these public contracts. We know the pension fund is being raided for the projects, with €770 million being taken from it two weeks ago. A total of €2 billion has been taken from the pension fund for these projects, which are supposed to be for the benefit of the economy. If the workers in the industries are not paid enough money to earn a living, how is it of benefit to the economy? It will do no good whatsoever.

The Minister for Education and Skills stated during Question Time today that she will meet the Minister of State, Deputy Nash, to examine the Lucan workers' registered employment agreement and see whether the issue can be resolved. It must move much more quickly than this because the workers have not been paid since 1 September. This is a very difficult situation for men who want to work. Some of them had to leave this country a short time ago to go to Australia and have returned home hoping to get decent work in the local economy. They have been left stranded for the past five weeks.

The legislation needs to be much more robust. How can an employer going through with a process with a union and workers' representation unilaterally move to lock out these workers and sack them? I do not believe this legislation is robust enough to deal with that.

The previous Deputy spoke about the fixed-payment notices. There is a time limit on the process of going through the Circuit Court. However, the other aspects of labour law need to be brought in - the minimum wage commission. All those areas need to be strengthened to protect workers from rogue employers. Most employers will go through the process, but there are a series of rogue employers who unilaterally do not even recognise the Labour Court or the structures within the State.

This is a public school being paid for by the pension fund being raided, which is the people's money. The 70 workers still outside the gate need the matter to be resolved and need an intervention by the Government to be able to resolve the issue. JJ Rhatigan & Company claims it has subcontracted the work and does not employ brickies. It does not employ brickies, but it employs a subcontractor to employ brickies who work on an RCT rate.

These are the issues that need to be dealt with through the Workplace Relations Bill.

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