Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I want to raise the issue of prospective job losses because this week, news broke of further job cuts from Amazon, with 9,000 jobs on the line internationally, in a second wave of job cuts being announced in addition to the 18,000 announced by Amazon in January that led, as we know, to 70 redundancies in Ireland. Layoffs have already been announced by other companies in the tech sector, such as PayPal, Google, Twitter and so on. We do not yet know how this recent announcement will affect Irish employees, but my thoughts and those of all of us in the Labour Party are with those directly affected and in fear for their livelihoods, particularly in my constituency, which is very much affected by this, with quite a number of tech employers located in Dublin Bay South.

I also commend those in the tech sector who are beginning to unionise. Will the Taoiseach get ahead of the upcoming EU directive and create a right to collective bargaining? Certainly, those who are in unionised sectors are in a much stronger position when it comes to negotiating with employers about, for example, the prospect of voluntary rather than compulsory redundancies being carried out in a particular sector.

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