Seán Kenny (Dublin North East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am happy to see the introduction of this legislation. I thank the Minister, Deputy Bruton, and the Minister of State, Deputy Nash, for their work in this regard. In recent years, I have been concerned by the lack of a statutory framework to ensure that workers seeking to improve their terms and conditions can do so by seeking to engage in collective bargaining or REAs, the latter being particularly important, given the fact that the Supreme Court struck down the old REA framework on constitutional grounds. I am glad that the Government is now addressing this matter and has worked hard to ensure that the new REA framework is constitutionally robust.

The Bill makes provision for the registration of employment agreements between employers and trade unions governing remuneration and conditions of employment. The content of these agreements will be a matter for the contracting parties and will be legally binding on those involved. The Bill also makes provision for a new type of ministerial order, the sectoral employment order, SEO, which will allow the Labour Court to trigger a review of the pay and conditions in a particular sector of industry and to make a recommendation to the Minister. Such a review can be initiated at the request, separately or jointly, of organisations substantially representative of employers and-or workers.

There is broad acceptance that the reintroduction of REAs will benefit workers and employers. For both, these agreements and orders will provide certainty about future pay and conditions, thereby providing industrial peace. In a recovering economy, this is important.

I am also pleased about Part 3 of the legislation, which fulfils a significant commitment in the programme for Government to ensure that Irish law is consistent with recent judgments of the European Court of Human Rights by providing a clear and balanced mechanism by which the fairness of the employment conditions of workers in their totality can be assessed where there is no collective bargaining agreement in the workplace.

The Bill removes the right of access of "excepted bodies" to procedures dealing with collective bargaining legislation. An "excepted body" is the term used in the Trade Union Acts to describe a body such as an in-house works committee or the like that is not a registered trade union and conducts negotiations on pay and conditions only for the staff of one employer. Since the decision of the Supreme Court in Iarnród Éireann v. Holbrooke, it has been clear that a body cannot be an excepted body within the meaning of the Trade Union Act 1941 unless it conducts consensual negotiations with an employer. If a genuine excepted body is in operation, this means that genuine collective bargaining is happening. The point of all this is to ensure that a body that is an in-house committee or similar and is merely serving as window dressing to give the pretence of collective bargaining is not allowed to avail of this legislation.

It is also important to point out that the Bill is concerned with providing a remedy where there is no collective bargaining; a fundamental reason for invoking this legislation must be the absence of collective bargaining negotiations. This prerequisite cannot be satisfied where there is a genuinely functioning excepted body. Under this legislation, if there is no consent, the Act can be invoked.

Section 24 inserts a new subsection into the principal Act to give practical effect to the principle of the independence of an excepted body. It gives guidance to the Labour Court as to the criteria that it should take into account when determining whether an excepted body is engaged in collective bargaining and is genuinely independent of the employer. Section 24 also amends the principal Act by providing that, where an employer asserts to the Labour Court that it is his, her or its practice to engage in collective bargaining with an excepted body in respect of the workers concerned, it will be for the employer to satisfy the Labour Court on this.

The Government has decided as a matter of policy that it would be preferable under this Bill for the workers involved in a dispute not to be required to make themselves known to their employers early in the process if possible so as to avoid any potential for victimisation. The new section provides that a statutory declaration made by the chief officer of the trade union concerned, setting out the number of its members who are party to the trade dispute and the period of membership in the grade, group or category to which the trade dispute refers, shall be admissible in evidence without further proof unless the contrary is shown.

The Bill represents a significant step forward for workers and employers. It provides a clear, workable and constitutionally robust framework within which workers' remuneration and conditions of employment can be discussed and determined. I know of cases where this legislation would have helped and supported workers who were horribly victimised because they were trade unionists who sought to bargain collectively in unfair workplaces. We have seen recent examples of such. As this legislation did not exist at the time, those workers were sometimes bullied into silence, made redundant under spurious circumstances or constructively dismissed.

I am proud to support this legislation, which has been an aim of the Labour Party for many years that is finally being put into effect. I am confident that this framework will fit Ireland's constitutional, social and economic traditions and international obligations, which is important, and will ensure continued success in creating jobs and attracting foreign investment into the economy. I warmly commend the Bill to the House.

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