Thousands of workers to march on Dáil

THOUSANDS of workers will today march on the Dáil demanding Government action to improve employment rights as the issue continues to threaten the entire social partnership process.

Last week the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) dramatically pulled out of scheduled talks on a new national agreement after the country’s largest trade union, SIPTU, walked away from the table.

But despite the possibility of a complete collapse of social partnership and a return to industrial relations chaos, the Government has yet to come forward with proposals on how it intends to address the kinds of issues sparked by the ongoing Irish Ferries dispute.

The Irish Ferries decision to make more than 500 of its Irish-based staff redundant and replace them with cheaper agency workers from elsewhere in Eastern Europe has been severely criticised by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Micheál Martin.

But as thousands of Irish Ferries workers and colleagues from 15 of the largest unions in the country prepare to bring their protest to Leinster House at 2pm today, contact between ICTU and the Government remains at a low level.

Speaking in the Dáil yesterday, Labour Affairs Minister Tony Killeen said more than 40 recommendations arising from an internal review of the Labour Inspectorate would be brought to Cabinet shortly.

“There have already been more than 40 recommendations which will be brought to the attention of the House at the appropriate time,” he said.

“Some of them concern resourcing and others additional legislation or amendments to existing laws. Some are fairly simple and others quite complex. They deal with the resourcing and mandate of the labour inspectorate.”

But he stopped far short of the concrete guarantees sought by unions on how the kind of jobs displacement and unfair employment practices demonstrated by the Irish Ferries approach would be addressed.

Further clarification on those guarantees, which has been promised by Mr Ahern, is still awaited.

However, Labour’s enterprise spokesman Brendan Howlin criticised the continued Government ambiguity on whether legislation would be able to address the issues at stake in Irish Ferries.

In that regard Labour has prepared a bill aimed at protecting the employment rights of seafarers working on ships sailing into Ireland.

“If the social partnership is under threat because of the actions of one sole rogue operating company, surely we should have a definitive view as to whether legal action is possible at this stage,” he said.

Meanwhile, Sinn Féin’s Dáil leader, Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin, said social partnership could have no meaning and no future if management at Irish Ferries were “allowed to get away with dumping its Irish-based workforce, slashing wages and hiring of vulnerable workers to be exploited with lower pay and worse conditions”.