Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to discuss the Competition (Amendment) Bill 2016, which is being taken in Private Members' time and tabled by the Labour Party.

As I outlined last week, my party has a long track record of supporting workers' rights and balanced industrial relations legislation. The constitutional right of citizens to form associations and unions is enshrined in our progressive Constitution, Bunreacht na hÉireann, which was introduced under Eamon de Valera in 1937. Fianna Fáil has a strong record on worker protection from bringing in the National Minimum Wage Act 2000 to instituting the labour relations machinery of the State by establishing the Labour Relations Commission which has now been replaced by the Workplace Relations Commission. Furthermore, it has been a consistent policy of my party to end exploitable low-hour type arrangements and contracts. We have consistently stated that for any item of industrial relations or employment rights legislation to be fit for purpose, it must strike a proportionate balance between ensuring workers' rights are protected while providing flexibility in the workplace.

This is a balanced and proportionate legislative proposal. Fianna Fáil supports this Private Members' Bill. Having reflected on the matter, we will support its passage to the next Stage in the legislative process. The Bill was tabled by Senator Ivana Bacik and was passed during Private Members' time in the Seanad last October, where the Fianna Fáil Party supported it. This follows our support last year of a motion passed in Dáil Éireann to ensure freelance workers have the right to bargain collectively. Amendments were brought forward to the original Bill by the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation and, I believe, subsequently accepted by Senator Ivana Bacik to strengthen provisions in the Bill. Currently, competition law prevents actors who provide voice-overs for advertisements, musicians and freelance journalists from negotiating pay collectively. Irish Equity, representing theatre directors, actors and stage and set designers in Ireland, is part of SIPTU.

In 2004 the then Competition Authority ruled that the collective agreement concluded by SIPTU and Equity and the Institute of Advertising Practitioners constituted an unlawful agreement on the basis that each self-employed voice-over actor was considered to be a business undertaking. However, that has impeded the exercise of the right of collective bargaining, representation by trade unions for many workers and their union representatives in this sector. The restriction put on these workers has affected wages across the entire industry and impacted upon thousands of workers in the media, arts and cultural sectors. A list of some of those affected include actors doing voice-overs on radio, television, film or theatre; freelance journalists and photographers; writers for radio, television and film drama; musicians; and skilled tradesmen. Those workers have been denied the right to bargain collectively.

It is not disputed that competition law should preclude price-fixing agreements among cartels of businesses. The concern is that many self-employed persons are workers in the true meaning of that term. Many have little, if any, control over the legal minutiae or the nature of the contractual relationship with those for whom they work. In reality, they are employees on the basis that they earn their living from providing their labour for remuneration to others and they have been denied their right to bargain collectively. Crucially, this Bill would enable such persons to exercise the right to bargain collectively and negotiate pay and conditions. It would deem that such persons not be classed as undertakings for the purposes of competition law. Importantly, self-employed individuals would continue to be prohibited from price fixing in the best interests of consumers.

It is hoped the Bill will fulfil the commitment made in Towards 2016: Ten-Year Framework Social Partnership Agreement and assist workers’ campaign for increased pay and conditions in the media, arts and cultural sectors. In 2012, congress wrote to the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation seeking an exemption from the Competition Act in regard to the collective agreement in question. Regrettably, however, it was dismissed by the Fine Gael-Labour Party Government of the day. Significantly, in 2014 the European Court of Justice ruled that such workers can be categorised correctly as self-employed in one context but not in another. The court said that the classification of a self-employed person under national law does not prevent that person being classified as an employee within the meaning of EU law if his independence is merely notional, thereby disguising an employment relationship. Despite this, the Competition Authority, which is now known as the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, stated it would uphold its original decision rebuffing the concept that the actors concerned could be viewed as other than undertakings.

It is long overdue that freelance journalists, Irish musicians and voice-over artists be given the right to have collective bargaining via their trade unions recognised formally in Irish employment law. Having reflected on the matter, Fianna Fáil fully supports the passage of the Bill to Committee Stage. It is balanced and important legislation which should be dealt with as an urgent matter by the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation and the Joint Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation.

On behalf of my party, I commend all workers who have been involved in this campaign and also the Labour Party.

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