John Halligan (Waterford, Independent)
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Question 3: To ask the Minister for Jobs; Enterprise and Innovation if he will introduce legislation to compel all employers to recognise the right of the trade unions to negotiate on behalf of their members and the right for all individual employees to join a trade union. [14989/11]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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There are no proposals in the Government's legislative programme that would require an employer to recognise a trade union or compel an employer to engage in collective bargaining with a union. While Article 40 of the Constitution guarantees the right of citizens to form associations and unions, it has been established in a number of legal cases that the constitutional guarantee of freedom of association does not guarantee workers the right to have their union recognised for the purpose of collective bargaining.

There is a commitment in the programme for Government to ensure that Irish law on employees' rights to engage in collective bargaining is consistent with recent judgments of the European Court of Human Rights. This process will require consultation with stakeholders, including employer and worker representatives, and a review of the operation of the existing legislative framework as put in place under the Industrial Relations Acts 2001 and 2004 and the consequences of the litigation that has arisen in the course of the operation of those Acts.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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That was something of a non-answer. Union recognition by employers is a basic issue of democracy and the right to representation. Does the Minister agree, where employees come together for the purpose of securing their interests and protecting their conditions and are of the view that those rights are best served by being members of a trade union and selecting their own representatives to negotiate on their behalf, that they have the right to do so and that employers should respect that right? Does he agree that employers should negotiate with workers on that basis rather than do as some employers, such as Mr. O'Leary at Ryanair, have done, namely, to deny and subvert that right and to make their employees' lives a misery for seeking to assert their right to trade union representation? Should a Government which claims to care about ordinary working people and the vulnerable in society - if its deeds are to match its words - not ensure such a basic right for workers?

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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As I outlined in my answer, the Constitution recognises the right to join a union and to select representatives, but it does not oblige employers to recognise trade unions for the purpose of collective bargaining. That is the law as it stands and it remains the law.

The issue of collective bargaining and what happens where employers refuse to recognise unions has long been a contentious issue. As I understand it - and I am not an expert in this field - the industrial relations legislation introduced between 2001 and 2004 sought to introduce a system to deal with that. It was a negotiated solution between the two sides. Where a dispute had arisen and where the employer does not recognise the union, it allowed that the matter should go to the Labour Court for an adjudication. That is the system that has been developed under our voluntary industrial relations system. Some judgments have thrown doubt on that system and as I indicated in the initial reply, there will be discussions in this regard, as well on the issue raised by the European Court of Human Rights, which concerned the victimisation of individuals because they had joined trade unions. Consequently, the Government must ensure that Ireland's law is in conformity in this regard.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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The Minister's response appears to be that the Constitution does not require mandatory recognition of unions but nor does it prohibit it. The question is what will the Government do and not what the Constitution states. While the Minister may correct me if I am wrong, he has adverted to the existence of union-busting employers. When such employers hear that employees of theirs are getting organised in trade unions, they sack them. They get rid of them and make life unbearable for them, which is unacceptable. The way to deal with this is for the Government simply to introduce legislation whereby in the case of workers who choose to join and be represented by a trade union, their employer is required to negotiate with them and not to victimise them. Why can the Government not introduce such legislation and why must it defer to Europe or anywhere else? It should simply bring in the legislation to give people the basic democratic right to be represented by those they elect to represent them.

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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I indicated in my first reply that no proposals exist in the Government's legislative programme that would require such recognition by an employer of a trade union or to compel employers to engage in collective bargaining. As the Deputy is aware, this is a highly contentious issue and many companies that provide extraordinarily good employment do not recognise unions. This issue will not be decided by legislative fiat by the Government. The model that has been used in the past has been that where there is agreement between the two sides to develop proposals, they have been developed and have been enshrined into conventions and law but we have operated a voluntary system. The programme for Government has signalled that where there are flaws within the system that have been exposed by recent cases, the Government will move to correct them but again, this will be within a model of meeting and hearing the views of both sides.