Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Yes. As the Minister will be aware on 2 April thousands of workers in Dunnes Stores were forced to take to the picket lines, in the face of extreme bullying and intimidation by Dunnes Stores, in their battle for decent conditions of employment. This took place against a background where a huge number of these workers are in a very precarious situation as a result of having low-hour contracts. The hours they are being given are being used as a weapon by management essentially to discipline workers. Workers with families find themselves in an intolerable position where they do not know from week to week and, sometimes, from day to day what hours they will work, how much they will earn and, consequently, whether they will be able to pay their bills. The Dunnes Stores workers deserve great tribute for having the courage to go out and fight in the face of intimidation against this intolerable situation imposed by a hugely profitable company that has more than €2 billion turnover.

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Since the strike we have seen many workers threatened with having their hours reduced in an outrageous way. This is just one employer, but it is happening against a background of a chronic low pay issue in this country where 16% of adults whose income is below the poverty line are actually working. The phenomena of zero hour contracts and the appalling treatment of workers are rampant throughout the economy. The point made by the workers and their union representatives is that much of the abuse could and should be dealt with by law, with the Government passing laws to make zero hour contracts illegal and to give people certain rights and entitlements in terms of security and minimum hours of employment, as well as transposing European directives in this area which it has failed to do. I hope it will respond positively to the call of Dunnes Stores workers and the plight of low paid workers who are suffering abuse.

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