Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for putting this matter on the agenda. I will provide background to my question on whether the Industrial Relations Act 1990 needs to be revised. Times have changed since it was introduced, as have working conditions and the strength of unions. How employers treat their workers has also changed. We have bogus self-employment and all sorts of issues being faced by workers.

Tesco is the largest private sector employer in Ireland and for the past four years it has been trying to break its workers' rights to trade union representation, as I highlighted by raising Project Black in the House in 2017 when the Tesco workers were on strike. As part of the campaign, Tesco has targeted 180 of its longest serving workers who were all employed before 1996. They have had pay freezes when everybody else in the company has had a pay increase of at least 8%. The Labour Court has issued three recommendations on this issue and instructed the company to pay those workers the 8% they are owed, which amounts to €1 million or more than €6,500 each. This is a lot of money for low-paid workers, many of whom are suffering financially and are experiencing extreme mental health issues as a result of Tesco's actions. It is also costing the State revenue in terms of expenditure on family income supplement and social welfare support for these workers and in terms of the loss of employers' PRSI, income tax and USC payments.

Why is it that highly profitable companies such as Tesco can make €215 million in profit per year in Ireland alone and can consistently ignore the Labour Court and victimise workers in this way? Will the Minister of State look at this issue in detail? In reply to a parliamentary question I asked on Tuesday, the Minister of State said:

Ireland’s system of industrial relations is based in voluntarism and it has been the consistent policy of successive Irish Governments to support the development of an institutional framework supportive of this voluntary system through which good industrial relations can prosper. In line with the voluntary nature of industrial relations in Ireland, recommendations of the Labour Court made under industrial relations legislation are not binding on the parties although it is expected that the parties involved give serious consideration to the Court’s Recommendation.

Not all parts of the Industrial Relations Act are voluntary. Mandate has a collective agreement with Tesco that places responsibility on both parties to use the WRC and the Labour Court to the best of their ability. Both parties have always agreed to attend the Labour Court through joint referrals under section 26. In recent years, Tesco has refused to engage, forcing Mandate to take the most recent case under section 20. This means the result is binding on the union but the company is free to ignore the recommendations. They are not binding on the company. This shows the company is proceeding with its plan to stop recognising unions. This must be seriously looked at by the committee or the Minister of State. Does he intend to review the legislation in the light of the changes that have happened in the past 20 years?

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