Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State's reason for not accepting the amendment does not hold much water. In regard to amendment No. 10, he suggested that to add the word "blacklist" would be to deal with it in a piecemeal way. The alternative is to do nothing and wait for a major blacklisting scandal to emerge, and then to say that we did not want to do something about it in a piecemeal way. If the Minister of State wants to bring forth legislation to deal with blacklisting, that is great - I am sure we would support it - but right now it is quite a simple matter and I do not see what the problem is with adding the word "blacklist" to the subsection such that it would read: "An employer shall not blacklist, penalise or threaten penalisation over a worker for," etc. It clearly would provide strength to workers. It would make it more difficult for employers to discriminate against workers who are involved in trade union activity. The reasons given by the Minister of State do not hold water.

The same applies to the reasons given for the Minister of State's refusal to accept amendment No. 11. Again, I do not see how in any sense the Minister of State can say that it would be a problem for workers, or that any problem would be created by inserting the words "trade union members or activity" as other grounds for not penalising workers. The reality is that the current environment is a difficult one for trade unions. Many employers are very hostile and use the crisis to try to push back trade union rights. Therefore, the more legislation we have that would assist organisations on the ground, the better. Adding those words would be of assistance.

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