Aidan Davitt (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State. Quite a lot of work has been put in by Senator Nash and his fellow Senators on the Bill. Fianna Fáil has a long track record in supporting workers' rights and balanced industrial relations. The constitutional right of citizens to form associative unions is enshrined in our progressive Constitution, introduced under Eamon de Valera in 1937. We have a long and strong record on worker protection, from introducing the national minimum wage to instituting the labour relations machinery of the State. Furthermore we secured the enactment of legislation prohibiting the exploitation of zero-hour contracts, as we have discussed recently.We do not support the Bill as it would undermine the voluntarist approach that has served the industrial relations landscape to good effect for a sustained period.

Joint labour committees, JLCs, are bodies established under the Industrial Relations Acts to provide machinery to fix statutory minimum rates of pay and conditions of employment for employees in particular sectors. There are currently eight JLCs, as Senators are aware. It is voluntary for workers or employers to seek the formation of a JLC in their sector. Under the Bill, where one side does not agree to the creation of a JLC in its sector, the Labour Court would be empowered to unilaterally appoint worker or employer representatives to the committee. Where this is impractical, the Bill would empower the Labour Court to formulate an employment regulation order, ERO. Such proposals go against the voluntarist approach to industrial relations and the current balanced industrial relations landscape. The role of the Labour Court is to make recommendations to the Minister on the maintenance, amalgamation or abolition of existing JLCs. It would be a conflict of interest for it to fulfil that role while deciding on the composition of JLCs and initiating EROs.

I will raise certain other points directly with Senator Nash.