Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The reason I ask the Taoiseach to say he supports the Dunnes Stores workers unequivocally is because I genuinely believe a message must go out to the employer in this instance. As a former Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, I know all the usual processes and mechanisms. Dunnes Stores has refused to engage with the Labour Relations Commission or Labour Court, or to adopt its recommendations. It has refused flatly to engage with the workforce representatives, as recommended by the Labour Court. There comes a time when everybody should stand up for basic decency in terms of that relationship. The experience of the workers demonstrates excessive abuse of power over the workforce. As legislators, we cannot stand over what is going on. Everybody has been rostered for Thursday, deliberately. Even those who might have hospital appointments have been rostered, deliberately, to put them behind the eight ball, so to speak, or put them under pressure such that if they do not turn up there may be consequences for them. That is what is being said on the ground to the workers. It is intolerable and unacceptable.

With the greatest of respect to the Low Pay Commission, I do not believe it will deal with this. I have not read any proposals from the Minister of State, Deputy Gerald Nash, that will apply to this issue right now. The most powerful message that could go out would be a message from the Taoiseach stating he supports the Dunnes Stores workers and that the management should do what others have done, that is, apply the very basics. The requests were quite minimal. No one is looking for an earth-shattering change, just very basic rules so workers can at least plan their lives with some degree of dignity and decency. There is an absence of dignity and decency at the heart of how Dunnes Stores is treating its workers.

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