Paul Murphy warns seasonal employment permit enables exploitation
Paul Murphy criticised the proposed seasonal employment permit, arguing it would prioritise employer flexibility and risk treating migrant workers as temporary labour open to exploitation. He urged that existing employment protections must not be diminished and called for stronger safeguards, monitoring and transferability for seasonal workers.
Main concerns
He said the scheme as proposed risks opening a carte blanche for employers in sectors such as fruit-picking, hospitality and agricultural contracting to bring in workers for short periods and expose them to poor conditions. He warned seasonal workers could be treated like tools, unable to organise or integrate, and left vulnerable at the end of a season.
Protections and conditions
He insisted that protections under the general employment permit scheme must be maintained and strengthened. He said seasonal workers should have the same rights to the national minimum wage, movement toward the living wage, and that accommodation must not be paid for out of wages.
Enforcement and employer approval
He welcomed measures to require employers to be approved for a seasonal permit and to interrogate companies and directors to ensure they respect the law. He called for clarity that agencies will be responsible for the terms and conditions of workers they bring in, and for rules to prevent responsibility from falling between employers and agencies.
Monitoring, transferability and institutions
He said the proposal includes steps to allow seasonal workers to transfer permits to other employers and to pilot the scheme in a single sector for tracking and monitoring. He referenced the International Organisation for Migration supporting seasonal permits under the right conditions and noted increases in funding for the Workplace Relations Commission, while saying more capacity is needed to track compliance.
Legislative process and next steps
He said members will be able to work on regulations and protections at report stage and that the government will bring forward changes through departments. He expressed willingness to sit with colleagues to refine protections and to strengthen rules so that good employers are not penalised while those who exploit workers are tackled.
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Sir, a quote from the first recommendation of the committee. The committee has not seen sufficient evidence to support the proposed introduction of a seasonal employment permit and is also concerned about the lack of detail in the proposal. The protections and provisions under the existing general employment permit scheme must not be diminished and workers' rights must not be undermined. But certainly what we have before us is an approach by the government of emphasising flexibility for employers and with this scheme opening up a carte blanche for employers in certain sectors, fruit-picking, hospitality, to treat migrant workers like tools who can be brought in for a few relevant months, exploited as good as they possibly can, and then off they go without a second thought at the end of the season. I'm interested in hearing the minister's response, but I don't see how such a system of seasonal exploitation, let's be honest, that's what it is, isn't purely designed for the benefit of the employers and leave workers in a very weak situation, without ability to organise, without ability to be integrated, and just here to be exploited for a few months. The minister says, look, we're going to do protections, whatever, so I'm interested in hearing that, but the purpose of a seasonal employment scheme is for these particular sectors, very low-paid sectors, to get extra cheap labour in for a small period of time without the danger of them getting organised and fighting to improve their terms and conditions. I accept the committee and have a different view on this. I'm also discussing this at length a few times as well, and I'm willing to work with the members to get this right in terms of the additional protections protection, the additional protection we put in place around that. We could do that after report stage and before report stage. I am willing to sit down with members here to tease through. We have a number of changes that are working on with different departments that we will bring through Cabin as well to strengthen this position as well. But there are two things here. First of all, a seasonal parameter is not unique to Ireland. It is very unique that we have not got one. Most other countries do have it. I know there is reference to certain organisations who do not support that. I did seek the guidance from the International Organisation of Migration, who are one of the leading intergovernmental advice bodies on this as well. They do support, under the right conditions, to having a seasonal permit. Their expertise in this area is well beyond Ireland and many other countries as well. They are not against us. I am happy to tease this through with people as well. The need for it, there are certain sectors. The Deputy Southampton mentioned flower-picking and fruit-picking. Another example is agricultural contractors. There are a number of people there who spend their winter in New Zealand, harvesting silage and other areas and then come here in the summer and vice versa. There are a number of sectors who will use this scheme. What we are saying is that it will not be just easy to be able to avail of a seasonal permit. Our recommendation that we will bring to you around regulation and report stage is that we will probably try this as a pilot scheme and pick a sector that we can track and monitor and see if this will work. All the protections that are there for anybody that works in the state will be there for a seasonal worker or not. They are there. There is no issue with strengthening the position of them. We have increased the budget to the WRC a couple of years running there and there is an issue with having enough staff. We will certainly work with them on that as well, but they are very committed to that as well. They are in a position to be able to manage this and track this as well. The big issue for us, I think, is a change that members here should be happy with, that employers will have to be approved a seasonal permit permit. That means we will interrogate them as a company and the directors to make sure that they honour and respect the laws of the state, to be very clear on that. You will not be getting approval too easily on that one as well. That is something that we will work on as well, so we can track that. The issue is, if an agency brings in a seasonal worker, what are their responsibilities? We are very clear on this and we will be. We can cover fast on this and report stage on regulations that they will be responsible for the terms and conditions of that employee and the respect that the law has been followed. We cannot have the situation, which happens on some occasions, that it falls between or the agency says it was not them or vice versa. We are very clear on that and the law will reflect that as well. We want to strengthen this as well and that seasonal workers will have that ability to easily transfer their seasonal permit permit to another improved employer. That is key. Members here want that across the board with the permits to deal with this concern that a person could be tied to an employer that is not following the rules of the law. We are working on that to strengthen that as well. Then there will be issues in terms of conditions around wages, that they are here to the national minimum wage, they are on track to the living wage, accommodation has been offered and that does not come out of the wages as well. That is the space we are in, is to protect this. We do think there is a need for it and it is internationally accepted that there is a need for seasonal workers, but we will go beyond to make sure that people are not abusing the situation. I have to repeat, the majority of employers are good employers and we have to make sure that the legislation does not penalise good employers, but make sure we can deal with those who are not good employers and allow people to work in poor conditions. That is something that we will deal with. In the state, we have quite strong industrial protections there for our workers and that is something that, again, they will be fully available to anybody, no matter where they are applied in this sector as well. I accept, Deputy Murphy, we do not have all the records of amendments we would like to have here. We have not got them ready. I am saying that we will return to this report stage or before it to try to work with you on this as well, because we believe it is needed. I understand and accept people here who have a genuine disagreement with that and I am willing to work with you on that that we can strengthen the position that if someone is in the season working with you on that we will have all the protections and more in the state as well.
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