Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am pleased to have an opportunity to speak to this legislation. This is a very important area, one that we need to get right.

This Bill is a challenging, technical, and lengthy piece of legislation. I acknowledge the work of the officials in the Department. A not inconsiderable amount of effort has gone into producing the Bill. I understand the need to modernise our employment permits legislation and Sinn Féin wants to see progressive legislation to improve the system. We support the fair and sensible use of employment permits where there are shortages of necessary skills in our economy, but such a system must also protect the migrant workers who are in receipt of those permits. That is why we have some concerns with the approach the Government has taken in the Bill.

As it currently stands, the Bill is heavily focused on increasing flexibility for employers, but there is not a great deal relating to workers' rights. We must redress the balance. The Bill aims to increase the agility and effectiveness of the employment permit system, while retaining the policy focus of supporting the economy and the labour market through evidence-based decision making. While we accept this aim, especially in the context of the current need for economic recovery, we have concerns about the manner in which the employment permit system operates in practice. In particular, the Joint Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment received evidence that, in some cases, the employment rights of workers under the permit system - including their level of pay and their conditions of employment - are not observed or enforced. In addition, such workers experience uncertainty in relation to their future prospects and the position of their families. At the same time, the employment permit system enables the State and employers to overlook the potential to provide training and upskilling to the workforce already in place so that they could avail of the job opportunities that become available. These issues should have been fully rectified in the Bill.

While the Bill is not without merit, it ignores the advice of the Joint Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment's pre-legislative scrutiny report on a number of matters. The committee made several vital recommendations as part of its report on the Employment Permits Bill. If several of these recommendations were implemented, they would grant the same basic rights to all work permit holders and protect them from serious exploitation. The Minister of State outlined that he would be willing to work with us on Committee Stage. We have a hill to climb. We might have a fair bit of work to do, but Committee Stage is a good point at which to tease out any issues and reach agreement.

The joint committee recommended that workers with general employment permits are provided the same rights as those who are employed with critical skills permits, and that a holder of a general employment permit should have the right to gain access to the labour market after two years instead of five, which would make it easier for them to challenge exploitation and substandard conditions. The joint committee also recommended that holders of general employment permits should be given improved rights in relation to family reunion and the access of family members to the labour market. It further recommended that the Ministers for Enterprise, Trade and Employment and Justice should address this matter in conjunction with the Bill.

The joint committee indicated that it had not seen sufficient evidence to support the proposed introduction of a seasonal employment permit and that, instead, the scope and terms of the general employment permit should be adapted to meet the need for seasonal employment with the protections and provisions under the existing scheme not diminished, and workers' rights must not be undermined.

While some of these can be legislated for directly in the Bill, others, like the granting of full access to the labour market after two years require collaboration with the Department of Justice. In its report, the joint committee recommended that this collaboration with the Department of Justice would take place in conjunction with the Bill. As far as we can see, these recommendations have been entirely ignored, leaving workers at risk of severe exploitation. As the Minister of State is aware, these are very vulnerable workers. The very least we can do is ensure that workers who come here to fulfil a need we have are treated with the same respect and dignity that is accorded to every worker in the State.

As already stated, the Bill as it currently stands is heavily focused on increasing flexibility for employers, with not much attempt to protect workers' rights. The Minister could have used this opportunity to give the same basic rights to all employment permit holders so that they can work safely. It is regrettable that this has not been done.

Sinn Féin totally opposes any move that opens the possibility of an exploitative employment model in certain economic sectors through the introduction of seasonal employment permits, which is neither an ethical nor a sustainable solution for the sector concerned. I note what the Minister of State said about Ireland being an outlier, but it would be good if we were an outlier in terms of providing leadership for people who need it and in terms of providing protections for vulnerable workers.

What all workers within these sectors need is a living wage, decent pay and conditions, the right to organise and collective bargaining coverage. Only progressive changes such as this will future-proof our economy, make work pay, attract workers to sectors that struggle because they are low paid and have poor conditions and ensure all current and future workers in these sectors are afforded decent pay and conditions.

This is not the only divergence from the recommendations of the committee. It stated that proposals to amend operational details of the permit system by way of regulation would lead to a lack of transparency and make scrutiny by the committee and others more difficult, and I welcome what the Minister of State said about working with us. Nevertheless, the Government has ploughed ahead and given fairly extraordinary powers to the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment of the day to make changes to the employment permit system by way of regulation, effectively bypassing the Dáil and the Seanad. Changes in the Bill that will allow subcontractors to make use of the employment permit system are also concerning. We fear that this could lead to the abuse of migrant workers. There are already serious issues with bogus self-employment and breaches of employment law in the area of subcontracting. We feel this is incredibly risky and, as with seasonal employment permits, not an approach we can support.

Another area of concern relates to the continuation of a section that was inserted into employment permit law in the Employment Permits (Amendment) Act 2014, which continues to allow an enterprise development agency to make recommendations to the Minister for employment permits to be granted. Similarly, our reading of section 20 suggests that the 50-50 rule can be circumvented by subsection (2) on recommendations of an enterprise agency or the Minister. This is an important rule in employment permit legislation and we hope this matter can be clarified as soon as possible.

As for section 25, on the mandatory grounds for the refusal of an employment permit, we want to see this section strengthened considerably. In particular, Sinn Féin wants a mandatory refusal of an employment permit application for any company that has been found in breach of employment law in the previous five years. The Joint Committee on Enterprise, Trade, and Employment received evidence that, in some cases, the employment rights of workers under the permit system, including their level of pay and conditions of employment, are not observed or enforced. We must ensure such unscrupulous employers do not have the opportunity to offend again and that there will be repercussions for any breaches of employment law.

A further area we want the Minister of State to clarify concerns the remuneration of workers. It must be made clear that where accommodation and board is provided to a worker, this cannot not abused as a way to provide substandard accommodation and board or, indeed, substandard wages. It must also ensure that any accommodation and board provided will be properly overseen by the Government and the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, to make sure that the valuation placed on it as remuneration is correct. I have seen at first hand some of the conditions people are living in and, for want of a better phrase, you would not put a dog in them. I have not seen examples for a long time, not since I became a Deputy, but when I was working in the union, I saw up to 13 or 14 people squashed into caravans, freezing cold, while their employer would have the neck to deduct money out of their wages at the end of the week for their bed and board and for the luxury of accommodation. There needs to be some sort of oversight of that. These are very vulnerable workers. There is often a language barrier and they may not be present in their community even though they work there, and we need to do some work on that.

The number and scale of WRC inspectors has to be seriously increased. If the purpose of the Bill is to increase the number of people coming here on work permits, we will have to increase the number of labour inspectors at a corresponding rate. That stands to reason and logic. As I said and as we all acknowledge, these are vulnerable workers and they need that little bit of extra protection. In the year to date, more than 30,000 work permits have issued and a record number of people are in employment, but there are scarcely more than 50 WRC inspectors investigating for exploitation and breaches of employment law. We also want the legislation to be amended to ensure that before workers arrive to begin employment, they will be given a full online course in workers’ rights provided by the Department in conjunction with the Irish Congress of Trade Unions.

Will the Minister of State explain why the rates of pay for workers in the meat-processing industry have not increased since 2017, assuming the Department is continuously monitoring the sector due to the high prevalence of employment permits? Of the top five companies in receipt of employment permits, three are meat companies. The wages for meat processors and deboners were set in 2017 at €10.85 and €13.65 an hour, respectively. The rate for meat processors will increase this year, but only because the minimum wage has increased. Why has this sector, which has many workers in receipt of employment permits, not seen wages increase in five years? If these sectors are being monitored by the Department, why are the wages stagnant? Why is nobody asking that question? There has been pay movement virtually across the board, even if much of it is not enough to keep pace with inflation, but these people's wages are not moving at all. Surely somebody in the Department is asking why wages are remaining stagnant in an industry that is a high user of work permits. We do not need a colouring book to join up the dots on that one.

Sinn Féin has been clear on certain matters relating to employment permits. First, any changes to the system must have the interests of workers at their core and ensure equality for all holders. We totally oppose changes that would allow an inequitable and exploitative employment model to develop, which is neither ethical nor sustainable. On top of this, we need to ensure all workers, whether migrant workers or not, will receive a living wage, decent pay and conditions, a right to collective bargaining and a right to organise. Second, we have always insisted, in the context of the critical skills employment permit, that the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment needs to develop a greater working relationship with the Departments of Education and Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science to ensure we equip students with the necessary skills for areas of the economy where there are skills shortages.

Sinn Féin supports progressive improvement of our employment permit legislation that will support and protect migrant workers and benefit the economy. However, we feel that the Bill needs to be amended in order to make it fit for purpose. We will amend it on Committee and Report Stages and any support will be contingent on the Minister engaging with us and our concerns and accepting the sensible and constructive amendments we will put forward.

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