David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing time with Deputy Michael Quinlivan.

I welcome the Bill. I commend the author of the Bill and also the Labour Party for bringing it forward. I take the opportunity to thank the Labour Party Members for the support they gave my party for Bills we brought forward on workers' rights.

The Bill rights a wrong that has continued for quite some time. It will allow trade unions once again to organise and to negotiate collectively on behalf of individuals who enter into or work under contracts personal to them or who provide any work or services. It will also allow for collective negotiation and bargaining on the terms and conditions of a scheme whereby services are provided to the public by members of a trade, profession or vocation and paid for out of public funds. As a result, it will restore the right of the National Union of Journalists, the Musicians Union of Ireland and Equity, the actors’ union, to negotiate collective bargain rates for their members and not before time. This is a welcome advance in the long-running campaign to have collective bargaining rights returned to freelance workers. It is a step in the right direction for the many freelance journalists, musicians and actors who have suffered since their right to be represented by a union in collective bargaining was removed from them over ten years ago.

The Bill also deals with false self-employment for those categories of workers, something that is on the rise in the State. In the construction industry, for example, the proportion of those self-employed has grown from 25% in 2006 to 38% in 2015. We have cases across the country of individual tradespeople who have relationships with individual contractors who are sub-contracting work. I have seen situations evolve in the past few years in particular where somebody enters what might be termed a bogus self-employment relationship, which is very damaging. It means that those people have no employment protections, no right to redundancy payment and PRSI contributions are not being made by the employer. This is used to disguise the employee-employer relationship.

We need to make sure the law catches up with this emerging practice and that we reflect in our law the actuality of the employee and employer relationship. In 2016, the think-tank, TASC, compiled a report on bogus self-employment. It states:

The ‘bogus’ or ‘constrained’ self employed are located within the self employed without employees. Interviews show that the offer of employment is often conditional on accepting a status as self-employed. This can be achieved by the employer (the principal subcontractor) without any intervention by the designated worker. The process is entirely self-administered and the checks to prevent bogus self-employment are purely formulaic.

The report goes on to state:

Bogus self-employment results in loss of PRSI income which is unlikely to be compensated for by lower claims. We estimate that a minimum of 25% of those reported as self-employed without employees are ‘bogus’ or ‘constrained’ self-employed; they amount to nearly 7% of the industry workforce. This minimum figure would generate a loss of PRSI contributions of €21m per annum. In fact, the annual loss will be a multiple of this and closer to the upper bound figure of €83m per annum.

The spread of bogus or constrained self-employment is part of a broader problem of short-termism in the Irish construction industry where competition risks becoming a race to the bottom. Working conditions have deteriorated as has the skill base of the industry. One desirable and immediate change would ensure that the PRSI contributions generated by the self-employed are increased to become equivalent to those generated by employees; this would enable both employees and self-employed to avail of the same PRSI funded benefits.

Sinn Féin has no quarrel at all with the genuine self-employed, many of whom are union members. Self-employment in construction includes small businesses with a few employees. It also includes independent craft workers who may employ others sometimes. Such craft workers may specialise in small build and maintenance work. They may also be subcontractors on larger sites. In fact, they may be all of these things at one time or another, and employed workers too when times are rough. Such people work on their own account; they really are their own boss. The law recognises that. Revenue includes these points in its guide on self-employment. Someone is self-employed if, among other things, he or she has control over what is done, how it is done, when and where it is done and whether he or she does it personally. They are also free to hire other people, on his or her terms, to do the work which has been agreed to be undertaken.

The issue of bogus self-employment is one that needs serious attention by this House and while the Bill does not tackle bogus self-employment, it at least raises the issue when it highlights forced self-employment when it comes to collective bargaining rights.

Despite my quarrels with the Labour Party Deputies in recent years and their involvement in government, I again wish to commend them for bringing forward the Bill. I also commend the Minister for her support and the Fianna Fáil Party for its support. My party will give the Bill its full support and I hope it will progress through the Dáil as quickly as possible. Whatever differences we have - the Minister cited some concerns about the Bill - they can be aired and dealt with on Committee Stage, but I hope all those musicians, freelance journalists and other workers who need this protection will get it very quickly if we do our work here as quickly as we can.

See this speech in context