Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

For almost a year now, all the Taoiseach's speeches about the economy have been accompanied by a little catch phrase along these lines, "As we approach full employment, our emphasis now has to be on good jobs, jobs that pay the bills, jobs that allow people to aspire to homeownership and pensions that allow them to plan for the future." Obviously, someone told him this was a great one-liner because he has been repeating it ad nauseamfor almost a year. The truth, however, is that it means nothing. Behind the figures he boasts about, there lurks a dark underworld - a battlefield for an almighty assault on the working conditions of workers, particularly women, in this country. This week marks its escalation, with a number of industrial disputes brought about as a result of brute intransigence by profitable companies refusing to negotiate with unions or to deal with the industrial relations machinery of the State. Actually, it is becoming quite a trend. The first is LloydsPharmacy, the largest pharmacy chain in the country. It has 800 staff, 92% of whom are women. It is owned by a multibillion dollar US pharmaceutical giant. This company is in modern "On the Waterfront". There are no guaranteed hours. One can be brought in to work any day at any time. If one is sick, tough. The company will not pay one if one is sick, forcing many low-paid workers to work sick in a job where they interface with sick people. One could not make it up. Since February 2017, the company has refused to negotiate with Mandate and it is now blatantly ignoring a Labour Court recommendation. Of course, it does not have any problems at all in accepting the State when it comes to putting its hand out for the significant HSE community contracts from which it profits.

Meanwhile, in the Taoiseach's neck of the woods, another group of workers being forced to take action are those at Ryanair. They are due to take that action on Thursday next. We note the irony of Ryanair, the company that wrote the manual on blackmail and bullying, accusing its pilots of bullying. Is Ryanair serious? The pilots are simply demanding a master seniority list, something that costs the company nothing but that would provide a transparent mechanism for dealing with base transfers, command upgrades, holidays and the like, which have a major impact on family life. Of course, Ryanair wants to keep it so that it can continue to bully its staff. As a former Minister with responsibility for transport, the Taoiseach knows well the root cause of this dispute. Precarious employment contracts are being used to deny pilots and cabin crew basic employment rights, such as the rights not to be dismissed unfairly and to maternity leave. We are unique in Ireland in facilitating such employment contracts.

It is about time the Taoiseach started to deal with this rather than talking about it. We are becoming infamous as a flag of convenience for social dumping. I want to know what the Government is doing, against the backdrop of employers abandoning the voluntary industrial relations system, to ensure that workers have access to collective bargaining and a right to have their employment conditions protected.

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