Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I join, I hope, everyone else in the Chamber today in sending out a strong message of support to the striking Dunnes Stores workers. I salute them in the action they have taken. At the centre of this dispute is the gross abuse of 15-hour contracts by Dunnes Stores management.

I spoke to one woman whose story is very typical of her co-workers. Mary has worked in Dunnes Stores for 13 years. Her partner also works for Dunnes Stores and has done so for nine years. Both of them are on 15-hour flexi contracts. From week to week they do not know how many hours they will have or what their pay will be. Often their hours are spread across five days and deliberately kept below 19 hours. This means that Mary and her partner cannot claim jobseeker's allowance or the family income supplement. In some weeks Mary and her partner do not have enough money to buy food for their child. It is nothing short of scandalous that Dunnes Stores treats its workers in this manner. They are constantly in a state of fear of losing their jobs and they are deliberately denied the most basic decent conditions and pay. All the while Dunnes Stores maximises its profits.

I agree with the Tánaiste in condemning Dunnes Stores for its failure to engage with the industrial relations mechanisms of the State and with the union representatives. That point is well made. However, Dunnes Stores can only abuse its workers in this way because the Government lets it. Fine Gael and Labour, like Fianna Fáil before them, have failed to protect these workers. How is that? They have failed to implement fully the part-time workers directive and have failed, after four years in government, to introduce collective bargaining legislation. That is where it is at. While the Tánaiste correctly condemns the proprietors and management of Dunnes Stores, this is happening on her Government's watch and because of its failure to act.

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