Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted to speak on this report containing the recommendations of the Committee on Budgetary Oversight because it is very important. The reports I have heard from workers are just shocking. There is clearly a problem owing to the exploitation of workers in the Irish film industry. It appears to be hidden away through dodgy financial and legal checks, but the bottom line is that there are thousands of workers in the country who are employed outside EU national law and who are without proper pay, conditions, benefits and recognition of service. They face blacklisting if they speak up about any of this.

I have heard reports of workers being blacklisted for making workplace injury claims, workers with 40 years' service being blacklisted and workers being blacklisted for attending Oireachtas committee meetings. In 2021, in the report on bogus self-employment, the Joint Committee on Social Protection recommended that the Department of Social Protection and the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment develop anti-victimisation and anti-blacklisting legislation. This has not happened. The recommendation was made two years ago. This is a clear example of why anti-blacklisting legislation is needed. There is a massive chilling effect on workers' rights, pay, and health and safety if workers cannot raise their voices for fear they will permanently lose their jobs. Blacklisting does massive damage to workers' lives.

These are 1930s tactics that are being carried out through modern-day tax and company law. Workers have been fighting these tactics to suppress workers' rights since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. We see in clear daylight what is happening. What companies with charity status are doing with taxpayers' funding is just not acceptable. The requirement under section 481 to provide quality employment and training and the industry development clause in the EU state aid rules are clearly broken if representatives of employers are saying at Oireachtas committee meetings and in the Labour Court and Workplace Relations Commission that the companies receiving the tax breaks have no employees, no buildings, no infrastructure and no camera equipment or post-production facilities, all despite their receiving over €4 billion in tax breaks through section 481.

I would like to refer to the report's recommendation on a stakeholder forum on workers' rights in the film industry. There is now evidence of cartel tactics being employed in the industry, and the relevant Department must investigate this. Over the past few weeks, we have heard of the ongoing problems owing to bogus self-employment in RTÉ. We have seen that workers' rights have been trampled on in the Iceland stores, where the workers were not paid their wages. This has been raised publicly in the Dáil and it was not followed up with any inspection. We have seen the same with the Debenhams workers and the security workers.

Now we have a report on the abject conditions of workers in the film industry. What is happening is just not good enough. I know some of the workers. They tell me what is happening in the industry and I believe them. Some of them are blacklisted and cannot get work. Whether it is through tax breaks or State funding, the companies are using taxpayers' money to make profits off the back of exploited workers.

Committee recommendation No. 4 states:

The Committee recommends that the term 'quality employment and training', in the context of the audio-visual industry, be defined.

That is really important.

Recommendation No. 5 states:

The Committee recommends that it is clearly established that producer companies who receive Section 481 on the condition of creating quality employment and meeting the industry development test must take responsibility for employees and acknowledge their employment relationship with film crew across different productions and recognise the accumulated service of all such employees as a condition of receiving Section 481.

Recommendation No. 6 states:

The Committee commits to writing to the EU commission requesting an examination of the use of successive use of Fixed Term Contracts for film crew working across multiple productions, where such crew never acquire Contracts of Indefinite Duration or any acknowledgement of their service, and whether this amounts to a breach EU Directives in terms of both the Fixed Term Workers Directive and EU directives relating to state aid for the Audio-visual sector.

Recommendation No. 9 states:

The Committee commits to writing to the EU commission requesting an examination of the use of 'buy-out' contracts in the Irish film production.

I strongly support the recommendation to have a stakeholder forum. There needs to be a genuine look under the bonnet to ensure our tax breaks and State funding do not just go into the pockets of those at the top at the expense of workers.

See this speech in context