Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I know; I am sorry. It was sent over last night. I will get one sent over as quickly as possible. I apologise. I thought it had been sent.

I thank Deputy Collins for organising the briefing which I was not able to attend personally, but I got a good note on it and a number of people from my colleagues' offices also went. To provide clarity, we think it is a good thing to organise in the AV room. I have met the FSU, admittedly not about this issue, but I have not had an opportunity to meet Mandate and I hope to be able to do so directly in the coming weeks in my role. I meet the leadership of all the unions the Deputy mentioned in her contribution, both individually and collectively through the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, ICTU.

While I welcome the opportunity to speak about this Bill, the Government cannot support it for a number of reasons, including, as the Deputy laid out, the reasons we cited, which include potential costs for businesses and policy and legislative issues that would require detailed consideration in advance of progressing any proposals in this area.

I will go through that now. The Bill would place a statutory obligation on employers to deduct trade union subscriptions at source from wages on the request of an employee. These deductions would have to be remitted to a specified trade union within 21 days. Should this Bill be introduced, effectively under law an employer would have no choice when it comes to agreeing to remit trade union subscriptions and would have to bear any administrative costs of same. Even a small number of requests would place additional administrative burdens, especially on small and medium-sized enterprises. This could be considered to have an impact on the rights of employers to decide how best to run their businesses. Any such blanket requirement that employers should facilitate deductions would require additional detailed consideration to assess whether it is appropriate, proportionate and in line with constitutional principles.

Furthermore, the Private Member's Bill has a number of deficiencies in drafting, including the lack of a sufficient definition of an employee and the Long Title of the Bill refers to “the written notice of the information required under section 6” when the written notice is required under section 5.

Ireland’s system of industrial relations is based on a voluntary approach to agreements. Implementing the Bill would elevate remittances to a trade union to statute above all other employee-requested deductions, which would remove the long-standing voluntary nature of employer-employee agreements to make deductions from wages. There is no evidence that the provisions in the Bill would increase trade union density or enhance workers’ rights. The Payment of Wages Act 1991 already allows for lawful deductions with consent and mechanisms exist for addressing contraventions through the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, and the Labour Court. In many workplaces, workers already have the option to pay trade union subscriptions by wage deduction or can avail of other voluntary means such as direct debits to pay them. Indeed, my trade union subscription comes out of my wages every month.

The Oireachtas is currently examining legislation to establish an independent employment law review group, ELRG. The ELRG, once established, will be the appropriate body to provide expert, independent consideration and recommendations on the State's suite of employment rights protections, as required, to ensure the law remains proportionate, evidence-based and in line with the Constitution.

As the Deputy mentioned when she introduced this Bill on First Stage, one of the goals of the EU directive on adequate minimum wages is to increase collective bargaining coverage in member states and facilitate the exercise of the right to collective bargaining on wage-setting. The directive asks member states with a collective bargaining coverage rate of less than 80%, which includes Ireland by some amount, “to provide for a framework of enabling conditions for collective bargaining, either by law after consulting the social partners or by agreement with them”. It has been the consistent policy of successive Governments to promote collective bargaining through the development of an institutional framework supportive of a voluntary system of industrial relations that is premised upon freedom of contract and freedom of association.

The high-level working group on collective bargaining was formed in March 2021. The group agreed to explore mechanisms that would enhance existing industrial relations frameworks with a view to encouraging greater collective bargaining coverage in Ireland. The final report of the group was published on the 5 October 2022. The group made recommendations on a number of areas for reform, which, if implemented, could assist Ireland with its impending obligation to develop an action plan that will increase collective bargaining coverage. The group’s recommendations rest on its recognition of the continued necessity to respect the autonomy of social partners in collective bargaining.

On collective bargaining, we are at a stage where we are holding a number of direct meetings, which I organised, between the social partners. They met again a few weeks ago and, as discussed with Deputy O'Reilly either at the most recent session of oral questions or the one before, this work will be increased and we hope to hold meetings every two weeks until we get a resolution, well on time to meet the deadline of the directive, because the Government supports it.

I have said in this Chamber and in committee rooms a number of times that we support the increased use of collective bargaining. We are deadly serious about that and will meet our full obligations under the directive. The Government also fully supports the right of any worker to join and be active in his or her trade union. Indeed I am on record in this House as saying it is a good thing and I would encourage it. Employees have the right under the Constitution to form associations and trade unions. I remember setting up an association that in due course became a trade union in a previous life in Brussels. Under Irish legislation, an employee cannot be discriminated against or dismissed because of he or she is a member of a trade union.

The WRC introduced a code of practice on victimisation in 2015. The code provides practical guidance on procedures for the resolution of disputes between employers and trade unions and how to operate them effectively. The principles contained in the code are appropriate for employments in the public and private sectors of the economy irrespective of their function, nature or size. Victimisation in the context of this code of practice includes victimisation arising from an employee's membership or non-membership, activity or non-activity on behalf of a trade union. Complaints of victimisation can be taken up with the WRC. For all the above reasons, the Government is not supporting this Private Members' Bill.

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