SIPTU calls for laws to stop ‘daily attacks’ on union reps

SIPTU yesterday demanded that the Government introduce tougher legislation or a code of practice to prevent shop stewards from being dismissed or facing recrimination for carrying out union work.

The union’s biennial delegate conference was told union reps were ‘under daily attack’ from unscrupulous employers, in an attempt to prevent them from promoting employees’ rights in the workplace.

John Hansard of the SIPTU’s Dublin construction branch said, “If you are shop steward working for a company, you are sent to work on jobs with just three or four people [and] isolated from the workers.