Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Section 10(5) of the Bill provides that the Labour Court may cancel the registration of an employment agreement if it is satisfied that a trade union that was a party to the agreement is no longer substantially representative of the workers concerned. The purpose of amendment No. 2 is to require the court to give three months' notice to the trade union of its decision to allow for an appeal within six weeks of the decision.

Any consideration by the Labour Court as to whether a trade union is no longer substantially representative of the workers concerned would require the court to engage with the trade union in advance and to consider submissions from the union on the issue. In this regard, the trade union would clearly have advance notice of the Labour Court's consideration. Moreover, it is not considered appropriate to allow an REA to remain in place for three months after it has been determined by the Labour Court that a trade union is no longer substantially representative of workers. It is also important to remember that cancellation of the registration of an employment agreement does not affect an individual worker's entitlement to the terms of an REA under his or her personal contract of employment, which can only be changed by agreement between the worker and the employer.

We have considered in great detail what "substantially representative" means, and it was decided after a long period of consultation and discussion with trade unions and employers that some latitude would be provided to the Labour Court to decide, based on the circumstances of the issue, whether a grade, group or category of workers was in the trade union and represented by the trade union. There is good reason for that. There is a huge amount of knowledge and experience available to the Labour Court and there are a series of engagements with the trade unions whereby the Labour Court can decide whether a group or trade union is substantially representative of the workers. In cases such as this it is never useful to use bald figures, because sometimes that does not deal with the complexities of the industrial relations situations that the Labour Court often faces. I will not accept the amendment.