Unite issues policy toolkit demanding ‘Our Seat at the Table’

Union calls on all parties to commit to full implementation of EU “collective bargaining” directive

Unite, which organises workers throughout the economy, today (Friday) issued a new policy document outlining the union’s demands for legislation providing for union recognition, a statutory right to collective bargaining and measures to combat union-busting. The document, Our Seat at the Table, is available for download.

The union said that the measures are required to fully implement the EU directive on Adequate Minimum Wages, due to be transposed into Irish law by today (15 November).  The directive sets a collective bargaining target of 80 per cent, while it is estimated that collective bargaining coverage in Ireland is just 34 per cent.

The EU directive highlights the role played by collective bargaining in raising wages and combating low pay. One in five Irish workers are officially classified as low paid.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “For every €100 earned by a non-union worker, it is estimated that a union worker earns approximately €110. By refusing to enact legislation providing for union recognition and collective bargaining, the government has effectively denied Irish workers a much-needed pay rise.”

The outgoing government had indicated that, rather than legislating in the first instance, it would be implementing the directive by developing an ‘action plan’.

Unite is calling on all political parties to commit to full transposition of the directive by legislating for union recognition and collective bargaining. Unite is also calling for measures to tackle union-busting, which the directive identifies as one of the factors driving a decline in trade union membership.

Unite’s Irish secretary Susan Fitzgerald said: “150 years after the birth of Jim Larkin, it is scandalous that Irish workers are not only still waiting for the right to bargain collectively with their employer, but also still battling union-busting practices. We are calling on all parties to commit to including a new package of workers’ rights in the next programme for government”.

ENDS

Notes for editor

Our Seat at the Table is available for download here.

Summary of demands:

Union recognition, statutory right to collective bargaining and right-of-access

• A statutory path for workers to have their union/unions recognised for collective bargaining purposes by demonstrating that they are representative of workers in a given employment, or in a category/grade in that employment
• Provision for the Labour Court to impose a ‘bargaining order’ if an employer refuses to bargain collectively through a union/unions notwithstanding the union/unions having demonstrated that they are representative of workers
• Provision for unions to have a right of access to workplaces to tell workers about the benefits of union membership and collective bargaining, and to advise and represent workers.

Anti-union-busting measures

• Strong anti-penalisation provisions including dissuasive sanctions should a worker be dismissed or suffer a detriment due – even in part – to trade union activity.
• Effective legal protection for shop stewards and workplace representatives.
• Legal prohibition on employers pressurising, coercing or otherwise inducing workers to refrain from taking collective action.