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

The final sentence of the reply should be challenged. There is a need for the Act to be amended on the specific issue I am raising. I have said very clearly that Mandate used to use section 26 whereby both parties voluntarily agreed to go to the Labour Court, but Tesco has refused to do this and Mandate has had to use section 20, which is binding on the union but not the employer. The Labour Court recommendation has been issued three times and the company is completely ignoring it. What is in the Industrial Relations Act to force the company to pay the 2% increase year on year? It means the Industrial Relations Act is not working for workers in a fair way.

The Minister of State is saying this is one case but there is an increasing prevalence of employers refusing to engage with workers through their trade union and an increase in an attitude whereby they are ignoring the State's industrial relations machinery. This is the State's industrial relations machinery, namely, the WRC and the Labour Court. In recent years we have had employers such as Tesco, Dunnes Stores, LloydsPharmacy and many other outlets with more than 20,000 workers all ignoring and disrespecting the Labour Court's recommendations. The Minister of State knows employers and their representatives have been blocking joint labour committees from engaging. This is a blatant two fingers to the Labour Court, the WRC and the State's industrial relations mechanisms.

As the Minister of State said, Ireland has always had a voluntarist industrial relations model. A voluntarist model can only work where two parties volunteer. As employers, the group with disproportionate power are now ignoring not only trade unions but the State, is it time for a different model of industrial relations? I ask that the Minister of State, in amending the Industrial Relations Act 1990 to provide for An Garda Síochána access to workplace relations, introduce amendments to deal with some of these issues.

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