Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity)
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I thank the Ceann Comhairle for selecting this topic. Christmas Grinch of 2017 goes to Capita PLC, the parent company of AMT-SYBEX, which has made at least six Unite members compulsorily redundant. We are now two weeks away from Christmas and Capita is refusing to abide by the Labour Court recommendations LCR 21574 which would give those workers, who have up to 20 years' service, five and half weeks redundancy pay per year of service instead of the statutory two weeks. This is a company which employs 73,000 people worldwide. It is a business services provider. It made a profit in excess of £500 million sterling in 2015 and 2016. Most importantly for our discussion here, 40% of its clients in Ireland are in the public sector, including the Department of Justice and Equality, the Personal Injuries Assessment Board, Fáilte Ireland and Irish Rail. It developed and runs Ireland's national postcode system, Eircode, and it has a contract to service Anglo Irish Bank loans on behalf of NAMA.

Replies to parliamentary questions have revealed that Capita currently holds contracts with the State worth approximately €140 million across a range of Departments and State enterprises. However, it treats the industrial relations machinery of the State with absolute contempt. It described the Labour Court redundancy recommendation of five and a half weeks' wages per year for staff who are being let go as inappropriate and not in line with company policy and went on to infer that the workers' decision to be collectively represented by a union of their choice, Unite, had contributed to the negative outcome of their appeal. The inference that a decision by workers to collectively organise in a union was a contributory factor in their dismissal again highlights the significant deficiencies in the industrial relations legislation and the ongoing failure to properly provide for collective bargaining.

The union has written to the Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe. There was a protest today, which I attended, outside the Department of Finance, to which another letter was handed in because no substantial response has yet been received to the letter of 18 October. I raise the matter to seek an answer to the key questions being asked by the union. Although the company cannot be made do what is right by the Government and it cannot be forced, as I think it ought, to pay at least the five and a half weeks' redundancy per year of service that was recommended by the Labour Court, the Government should make a policy decision that such rogue employers that refuse to engage with unions, as Capita refused to engage with Unite throughout the process, and refuse to implement the recommendations of our industrial relations machinery should not be facilitated by the State. There should be a policy decision not to award any more public contracts to companies such as Capita that refuse to implement Labour Court decisions in this way.

Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for raising the matter, which I am taking on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Humphreys, who cannot attend the House this evening.

The Labour Court is an independent adjudicative body under the remit of the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation and has discharged its statutory function in the matter. The Minister has no function in respect of the implementation or otherwise of the Labour Court recommendation in the case. The Labour Court recommended an enhanced redundancy package for a group of workers in Capita following a referral by the trade union Unite to the Labour Court under section 21 of the Industrial Relations Act 1969. Although referrals under that section of the Act require the referring party to agree to be bound by the court’s recommendation, there is no obligation on the other party to be bound by or accept the recommendation. In this case, the responding party, as is its right, did not attend the hearing of the court and the court did not have the benefit of its position in framing the recommendation. In line with its statutory obligation, the court issued a recommendation based on the information presented to it.

As regards trade union recognition, Article 40 of the Constitution guarantees the right of citizens to freely associate and join unions. It has been established in several cases before the courts that the constitutional guarantee of freedom of association does not guarantee workers the right to have their union recognised for the purposes of collective bargaining. Industrial relations in Ireland is voluntary in nature and it has been the consistent policy of successive Governments to promote collective bargaining through the laws of the country and the development of an institutional framework supportive of a voluntary system of industrial relations premised on freedom of contract and association.

To improve the situation for employees, the Government enacted the Industrial Relations (Amendment) Act 2015 to facilitate employees’ rights to engage in collective bargaining. That provides a mechanism through which the fairness of the employment conditions of workers can be assessed where collective bargaining does not take place. It ensures that such workers, aided by a trade union, even where the trade union is not formally recognised by the employer, can advance claims about remuneration and conditions of employment and have them determined by the Labour Court based on comparator companies. Any determinations by the Labour Court in that context are enforceable before the Circuit Court.

The Government always encourages all sides in a trade dispute to engage constructively and in good faith, with a view to all parties involved making every effort to reach agreement and to come to an arrangement that recognises the concerns of both sides.

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity)
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That was not an answer to the letter written by Unite, the protest held today or the questions I asked. It is very unfortunate that neither the Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, nor a Minister of State at the Department of Finance is available to deal with these queries, which are directed at the Minister.

Capita holds extremely lucrative State contracts that are currently worth €140 million, which is a significant amount of money. It forms part of a small minority of rogue employers that are prepared to disregard the State's industrial relations machinery. Some 95% of all Labour Court recommendations are implemented by employers and Capita is, therefore, in a minority of 5%.

In view of those factors, it is the Government's right to say, as it should, that Capita will not receive any more public contracts until it agrees to implement the Labour Court recommendation and other recommendations. It is appropriate and right for there to be a public obligation on companies that receive public contracts not to treat their workers in the extremely cruel, Grinch-like fashion that Capita has, nor to disregard the industrial relations mechanisms set up to decide on disputes involving workers.

As regards the more general references made by the Minister of State, Deputy Cannon, to collective bargaining and so on, Capita refused to engage with Unite or attend the Workplace Relations Commission or the Labour Court and is now refusing to implement a Labour Court recommendation. That illustrates a weakness in the so-called voluntarist model of industrial relations in this country. The right for workers to freely organise, become involved in unions and collectively bargain means that if the majority of workers in a workplace join a union, the employer should deal with the union rather than ignoring it and the industrial relations machinery.

Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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All Members acknowledge that a redundancy situation in any workplace is difficult for workers and their families. However, we are fortunate to have an industrial relations system whereby the fundamental approach of successive Governments has been one of voluntarism. In general, our laws do not try to impose a solution on parties to a trade dispute but, rather, are designed to help support the parties in resolving their differences. The State has largely confined its role to underpinning voluntarism through the provision of a framework and institutions through which good industrial relations can prosper.

The recommendation in the Capita case was made under section 20 of the Industrial Relations Act and, as such, is only binding on the referring party, which is the union. It is important to point out that the company is not breaking any law by not recognising the recommendation of the Labour Court for more favourable redundancy terms.