Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am speaking on this Bill on behalf of the Minister of State, Deputy Breen, who has laryngitis and is unable to speak. I reiterate the view of the Minister, Deputy Mitchell O’Connor, that it is only right that trade unions are able to represent and take action in support of the interests of their members and that our laws support that right. The policy of successive Governments has been to support industrial relations. Our laws protect our trade unions to allow them to go about their business of protecting workers' rights. Protections from tort are provided where damage to employers results from legitimate trade disputes. Protections against victimisation are provided and were enhanced in 2015 to include an explicit prohibition on any inducements that might be offered to have staff forgo collective representation by a trade union. A revised framework for setting wages under the joint labour committee framework was introduced through the Industrial Relations (Amendment) Act 2012. The Industrial Relations (Amendment) Act 2015 provides a new statutory framework for establishing minimum rates of remuneration, pensions and sick pay, in the form of sector employment orders. The 2015 Act ensures that when an employer does not engage in collective bargaining, an effective framework exists to allows a trade union to have the remuneration and terms and conditions of its members assessed against relevant comparators and determined in a binding way by the Labour Court. This has been successfully used by trade unions. The Government will continue to support the important role played by trade unions in our society.

Unfortunately, the Bill before the House fails to appreciate properly the tried and trusted voluntary nature of industrial relations in Ireland. It does not try to achieve a sense of balance or reasonableness. If it is enacted, we will transplant a system that has been copied and pasted from a country in another hemisphere directly into Ireland without consideration of the economic, social, legal or historical differences. It is interesting that examples from closer to home were not considered when this Bill was being drafted.

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