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

I move amendment No. 2:

To delete all words after “Dáil Éireann” and substitute the following:"notes the failure of the Fine Gael/Labour Government to give adequate legal protection and legally enforceable rights to collective bargaining to workers in this country;

further notes the failure of the Fine Gael/Labour Government to halt the spread of precarious and low paid employment and the rapid increase in low wage sectors as a portion of the total workforce;

condemns the actions of the Fine Gael/Labour Government in facilitating the growth of low wages and its reliance on the discredited ideas of 'labour activation measures' to force workers into low wages jobs via schemes such as JobBridge, Gateway, etc., which have been used by employers as a substitute for providing real jobs and decent living wages;

calls for the immediate introduction of a National Minimum Wage of €12 per hour as a step towards €14 per hour to be introduced no later than 1st May, 2018;

calls on the Government to prepare and introduce a legislative package that will protect and enhance workers’ rights by:

— outlawing 'if and when' contracts;

— outlawing bogus self-employment;

— ensuring freelance workers have the right to collectively bargain;

— extending the Transfer of Undertakings Regulations (TUPE) to workers in all sectors;

— protecting workers in 'informal' insolvencies and collective redundancies;

— providing statutory redress for the victims of workplace bullying;

— promoting employment standards and the Living Wage in public procurement;

— preventing unilateral reductions in pay; and

— providing a statutory route to union recognition;

notes in particular the University of Limerick report to the Government, A Study on the Prevalence of Zero Hours Contracts among Irish Employers and their Impact on Employeesand, commissioned following the outrageous treatment of Clerys workers in June, 2015, the Cahill-Duffy Expert Examination and Review of Laws on the Protection of Employee Interests when assets are separated from the operating entity; and

commends the recommendations set out in both these reports and calls on the Government as an urgent priority to prepare legislation for their implementation."

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