Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Amendment No. 9 seeks to provide a role for trade union officials in the enforcement of registered employment agreements, registered employment orders which are more correctly entitled sectoral employment orders and employment regulation orders. It would also provide for the Minister making regulations providing for a right of access for trade union officials to the workplace and employees. It seeks to prohibit an employer from coercing workers to relinquish or abstain from an REA.

In respect of registered employment agreements , it is clearly a matter for the parties concerned whether they wish to include in the agreement provisions on access to workplaces for trade union officials. A REA will be binding on the parties to the agreement. I am aware that some previous REAs such as the construction sector REA provided that, in the event of concerns regarding compliance, a union official would have access to a designated member of management. It is totally open to the parties to an REA to agree to similar provisions in the future. It had been suggested during the course of these debates that primary law provided for this under the former REA regime, but it manifestly did not and we should not be confused on this point.

On the appointment of other persons, including union officials, as inspectors, it has to be appreciated the powers given to National Employment Rights Authority inspectors are extensive. They include, for example, the power to use reasonable force to enter a place of work or a premises where there is a reasonable belief it is being used for the employment of persons or the keeping of records. NERA inspectors have powers to copy records and remove books, documents or records for a period they reasonably consider to be necessary. They can, under warrant of the District Court, enter a domestic dwelling with other inspectors or members of An Garda Síochána in pursuit of documents or records. Such extensive powers are rightly and appropriately reserved solely for officers of the Minister who are appointed as inspectors.

It is vital that trade unions are able to represent the interests of their members and take action in support of these interests. The laws of the State vindicate that right and the provisions of this legislation will help in the context of a new collective bargaining regime. However, the suggestion that trade union officials should have a statutory right to enter a workplace to meet workers, even in workplaces that do not recognise trade unions, does not accord with the voluntarist approach to industrial relations that has been adopted through the decades. Whether we accept that voluntarist approach, that is a fact. Moreover and significantly, it would leave the urgent legislation before us open to the possibility of a legal challenge on an employer's constitutional right not to engage with or recognise trade unions. We must be mindful of this point, particularly given the necessity and urgency of this legislation. Having worked with the relevant actors to restore sectoral frameworks following the McGowan decision in 2013, I am not going to jeopardise for one minute the significant gains for workers and employers contained in the Bill by opening the door to such a challenge. I do not think there is any shortage of people who do not agree with me and the Senator on the urgency of the legislation and what it has been designed to achieve. There may very well be individuals and organisations that will be looking closely at the legislation and would be prepared to challenge it and I do not want to open the door to any degree for that to happen.Accordingly, I cannot accept this amendment.

Amendment No. 10 provides an entitlement for a union to represent an employee's interests under an REA or sectoral employment agreement, including on matters involving discipline and grievance procedures. In this regard, section 41(15) of the Workplace Relations Act 2015 already provides that a trade union official can accompany a worker in proceedings before an adjudication officer in regard to a complaint. Section 44(9) of that Act has the same provision in respect of proceedings before the Labour Court. Accordingly, I cannot accept amendment No. 10.

Amendment No. 11 proposes further rights of access to workplaces for trade union officials, for the purpose of monitoring compliance with REAs and SEOs and also with a view to carrying out trade union business on the premises with workers. Therefore, for the reasons I outlined previously in regard to amendment No. 9, I cannot accept this amendment.