Arthur Morgan TD, Cambell / Donnelly Cumann, Louth
Published: 1 March, 2008
Over the last number of years we have seen workers' rights come under sustained attack in this state, the likes of which we have not seen since the early part of the last century. The governance of Fianna Fáil, the PDs and now the Greens has seen an ever increasing race to the bottom for wages and working conditions backed up by the nonsensical mentality that to improve our economy we must abandon workers' rights and try to compete with economies like India and China.
This erosion of workers' rights has manifested itself in a most sinister fashion through the growth of agency workers.
As SIPTU President Jack O'Connor has stated this problem has been allowed to fester because of silence. There are still people who do not know what agency workers are, what is happening to them, and how they are being used by employers to erode the hard won rights of workers in this state.
Agency workers are employed to work for less money in worse conditions than directly employed staff. They are denied entitlements such as sick pay, holiday pay and overtime. They can be sacked at a whim and with this threat hanging over them, are often made to work longer hours, forgo weekends and holidays and to endure unsafe conditions.
What started off as a temporary source of employment to cover maternity leave and so on has been exploited by ruthless employers who are terming more and more jobs 'temporary' and are filling them with agency workers. In doing this they are displacing directly employed workers who have rights and entitlements that some employers see as costly.
And here's the important point. This is not just an issue that affects migrant workers. Existing Irish workers are being displaced and forced to join agencies, particularly in the construction sector. There are trades people all over this state who are being turned away from sites and told they must join an agency before they will be employed.
This blight will eventually affect decent employers as they will be forced to compete in their sector with cheap labour of irresponsible employers.
The Government has known about this problem for years but has failed to introduce legislation to tackle it. Worse still, along with only two other countries in the EU, one being Britain, it has actively blocked an EU Directive that promotes equality for agency workers. We can only assume that it is their relationship with big business, specifically developers and the like, that is staying their hand on stamping out the problem.
The Trade Union movement made a decisive move to break the silence surrounding agency workers at a meeting in Liberty Hall last November when SIPTU supported by many other unions launched its campaign. That Trade Union movement campaign in ongoing. We broke the silence in Leinster House last week when we put a motion to Government calling for legislation and were joined by the Labour Party in doing so.
Sinn Féin wants this legislation to include pay parity for agency workers. We want it to allow for the same entitlements and conditions such as sick pay, holiday pay, protection from dismissal and company benefits. We want to see agency workers entitled to trade union membership and we want employers prohibited from using agency workers in certain situations, for example to replace striking workers. We want stricter sanctions on employers who ignore workers' rights and we want to see improved redress for workers concerned.
These are just some of the measures Sinn Féin is proposing for the legislation that should stamp out exploitation of agency workers and their use to erode workers' rights.
Every single person of working age must realise how important this issue is and every activist in this hall mist make it our business to join the campaign for equality for agency workers. If we do not get legislation based on the principle of equal treatment soon we risk casualisation taking hold of our labour market. We will see one hundred years of workers' rights legislation become worthless. That's how serious this is.
A chairde, I call on you to support Ard Comhairle motion 202 and return to your areas ready to fight the fight for all workers rights.
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