Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

The expansion of precarious working conditions is a cancer which is eating away at employment conditions for all in this and many other countries throughout the world. It acts to undermine the rights and conditions - the stability of life - achieved by a previous generation of workers and increases the rate of exploitation by the 1%, which is causing the massive expansion in corporate profits seen here and throughout the world. The Government and some elements of the establishment would like to deny that reality. Last week there were attempts in the media to deny the expansion in the level of precarious work that had taken place in the economy in the past ten years, but the facts are indisputable. Between 2008 and 2016, there was a 25% increase in the numbers of workers in temporary employment, a 43% increase in the number of workers in involuntary temporary employment, a 35% increase in the level of involuntary part-time employment and a 35% increase in the level of part-time self-employment with no employees, or what, in many cases, is called bogus self-employment.

The unfortunate reality is that for many young people who are trying to find a job, the idea of a secure, full-time job which pays a living wage or higher allowing people to have a reasonable standard of living, with stability in their life, is becoming a pipedream. Instead, what is facing people is the prospect of entering a jobs market which requires massive flexibility, with bad working conditions and low pay. In some industries the idea in extremisinvolves internships or the widespread working for free. It has taken hold and is presented as a way to get one's foot in the door.

The ICTU report found that across the country, there are currently 163,000 workers facing conditions of zero-hour contracts or so-called if-and-when contracts; this is what is dressed up as the gig economy. They cannot tell from week to week what hours they will work, if they definitely will have work and what contracts and conditions they will face. The industries most commonly associated with this are sales, tourism and the services industries. It is also evident in areas that previously were better regulated and paid areas of the economy such as public administration, health and education. These are areas in which the Government is a key driver of the casualisation of labour.

A total of 61% of all workers in full-time or part-time temporary contracts are between 15 and 34 years of age. The same way landlords tell us young people do not really want to own a home and would rather share a two-bedroom apartment with eight other professionals, IBEC and big business would like to say that these millennials, of which I am one, do not want permanent jobs but flexibility. Richie Boucher, who previously received an income of close to €1 million a year from Bank of Ireland, was the latest person to tell us that millennials "don't have the same desire for long-term security". It is easy for him to say. Of course people want long-term security, decent working conditions and stability in their lives. The reality is that 70,000 workers on temporary contracts are temporary against their will. Of course they want better working conditions and wages.

The effects have been outlined and are widespread. It means that people cannot have work-life balance and cannot plan from week to week. It means they cannot get mortgages. The effect on mental health is absolutely devastating. TASC published a report in 2017 where one of the respondents in the study had stated:

I had terrible mental health issues, like awful, really, really bad! And it was all work related. Like, very, very bad anxiety; I talk in my sleep when I’m anxious. It’s the mental health that does it worst, and you’re just going to crack a lot of the time, and depression really hits. And you wouldn’t expect work to have that effect on you, but it really did. I think mental health is the biggest thing, and the stress of not knowing.

This is the result not of work itself, which is fulfilling and gives people meaning in their lives, but the levels of flexibility and exploitation to which young workers are subjected in precarious employment.

The answer is to do what happened in America with the 15 Now movement and what happened in Britain with the organisation of McDonald's workers. We need in Ireland to rebuild a movement of young workers - the so-called precariat - to turn the tide and challenge the exploitation. This means organising the unorganised in trade unions and the left in the Dáil pushing to outlaw precarity.

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