Paul Murphy: Criticises Government's 'Anti-Worker' Measures

The general election campaign for Fine Gael got off to a very bad start, because a video emerged of Michael O'Leary launching the election campaign of Peter Burke, now the senior minister responsible for this area, including, unfortunately, responsible for workers' rights, and saying the things that Fine Gael and Fine Gael supporters say to each other when they think that there are not videos on and these things are not going to be public. Michael O'Leary endorsed a government led by Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil and said, let's put two parties back in government that can deliver. He said, we need a government that delivers for enterprise. It's vital we elect a government that gets shit done, and I can think of nobody here, certainly in the current government, who demonstrates more action, more energy than Peter Burke. Michael O'Leary, of course, being a notoriously anti-worker, anti-trade union employer. No, the investment and the support of Michael O'Leary has paid off. So far, in just over 100 days of this government, you have had anti-worker measure after anti-worker measure pursued. Previous commitments made being dropped, the extension of sick leave, which we were promised at the time, we wanted to stitch it into the legislation, the increase of sick leave, and the government argued, no, no, no, no need to stitch it in, don't worry, we'll do it, now being delayed and proudly trumpeted by Fine Gael to business that they are delaying it. The delay of the promised living wage, just saying that people on the minimum wage should have the very, very basic what they need to survive, no longer a commitment by the government, kicked out, and also kicking off something that this doll voted for, which is to end the outrageous situation of so-called sub-minimum wages, of super exploitation of young people, young people legally being paid even less than the minimum wage. So we have a government that is very, very consciously working against the interests of workers and for the interests of big corporations and the likes of Michael O'Leary, and the situation then is a country where we have immense wealth, one of the richest countries in the world, and yet we have the highest rate of low pay in the European Union, one in five workers being low paid, over 420,000 workers. On top of that is the one in ten workers who experience bullying or harassment, is the conditions of precarity, where employees here work longer hours, have fewer holidays and have less protection against dismissal than their European counterparts. That is rife, and it is part of the so-called voluntaristic model of industrial relations that the government trumpets, which tries to make it difficult for trade unions to organise workers and for workers themselves to get organised. I will give you an example, the people who are operating the cameras for the Oireachtas right now are an example of the kind of conditions of precarity. These are workers doing a job, they should be directly employed by the Oireachtas, they are not, they are outsourced, they are in a situation when there was no doll for the extended period when the election was called and when the government negotiations were going on, they weren't getting paid at all. The rates that are getting paid is about half of what the normal freelance rates would be for camera operators and the other work that is being done. It is absolutely scandalous, but it shows that this is absolutely rife in terms of bad working conditions for workers. And those same workers of course are faced with grocery prices that are still sky high, energy prices that are still sky high and rent that is rising at a rate of about 10% a year. The best way for workers to deal with all of those challenges is to get organised into trade unions and to fight for better terms and conditions. Even with the terrible legal regime that exists in this country, even with the horrific elements of the 1990 Industrial Relations Act, all the evidence shows that if you get organised in a trade union you will be able to combat bullying, you will be able to combat discrimination, you will be able to improve the atmosphere, improve your safety in your workplace and you will be able to increase your wages. All the evidence shows that there is a premium of being in a union of at least 10% in terms of wages and a series of other benefits. The benefits of high levels of unionisation go outside of the workplace, again all the evidence shows that where you have higher levels of unionisation you have lower levels of inequality and wage inequality right across the economy. Where you have higher levels of unionisation a greater share of the value that is being created by workers goes to the workers themselves as opposed to going to profit. A key reason that the balance has shifted for more and more of the wealth being created going to corporations is this attack on trade unions which are heralded by Thatcherism, Reaganism and so on. A consequence is that while workers in the 1970s were getting 55% of the value that was being created that has been driven down now to 40%. So workers even under the current regime should join trade unions, should transform them into being fighting democratic organs. We should be clear that we have a government that is working against workers getting organised in trade unions. I got a recent answer from the junior minister, Minister Dillon, asking about if he was aware that large employers in receipt of government contracts, I was talking about Abtran and Relatecare who are anti-union employers, Abtran refuses to engage with the industrial relations machinery and they are refusing to recognise trade unions or engage in collective bargaining and what the minister is going to do about it. The answer I get is the answer that I will get, I presume, in the speech from the minister in 13 minutes time, which would be to say that we have a voluntary system of industrial relations that is premised upon freedom of contract and freedom of association. The government fully supports the right of any worker to join and be active in their trade union, employees have the right to form associations and trade unions, and an employee cannot be discriminated. But under Irish law, there is no requirement for an employer to recognise trade unions for the purpose of collective bargaining. So the government says workers have the right to join trade unions, but employers have the right not to deal with those trade unions. And it is all premised on this illusionary equality between employees and employers. Whereas bosses have the cards here. If you don't work, you can't provide for your family. It's precisely why we have a situation whereby workers have historically combined, have won minimum wages, have won the weekend, have won 40 hour weeks and so on. That's why workers need to combine and act collectively. But the government says, don't worry, to employers, you can simply ignore, you don't need to engage with them. That's the purpose of this bill. This bill introduces mandatory trade union recognition. So that when 20% of a given set of workers join a trade union, the employer is legally mandated to engage with that union through the industrial relations process. That's what it's about. It's very, very simple. It's about a basic element of democracy in the workplace. It's a measure that is supported by, in a recent opinion, Ireland Thinks opinion poll, 70% of people in this country. And this is to deal with a situation that, for example, take the second biggest company in the world, Amazon, owned by the second richest man in the world, Jeff Bezos, notoriously anti-union individual and employer. The richest man in the world, by the way, Elon Musk, also a notoriously anti-union individual and employer. There's a pattern there. But we know that Amazon is expanding in Ireland. They've now got 6,500 workers. That's going to be increasing even further. We know that they are renowned for poor working conditions. We remember them denying and then forced to retract on workers in America being forced to pee in bottles because they're not provided with appropriate breaks, toilet facilities and so on. So a huge amount of wealth being made off the backs of massively exploited workers in poor conditions. But we have a situation currently where all of those workers in Ireland could join a trade union and Amazon could simply say, no, we're not dealing with you. This is a company that spends about $10,000 a day in fighting unions and trying to keep unions out of their shops. We've spent over 10 million euros, I think, in 2022, 2023 in trying to defeat unionisation. And so we need to match the effort of those workers in Amazon in this country, fighting to build unions, to get organised, with a legislative framework that gives them the right to be in that union and then compels the employer that if they go and join a union, the employer actually has to deal with them. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.