SIPTU issue ultimatum on social partnership

JUST days before the Taoiseach convenes the social partners for a review of Towards 2016, SIPTU has officially confirmed there will be no further social partnership agreements until equal rights are given to agency workers.

The union’s president, Jack O’Connor, has frequently said the “abuse” of agency workers had the potential to be a barrier to any future agreement, but yesterday in an address in Waterford he explicitly confirmed SIPTU will oppose a new document if its concerns were not addressed.

“There will be no further social partnership agreements unless the principle of equality of treatment for agency workers is conceded in accordance with the standards that apply within the most advanced EU countries,” he said. “The present situation is unacceptable. We have a deplorable system of rented labour in which vulnerable people have effectively no employment rights in practical terms. The nearest parallel to the present phenomenon, which affects tens of thousands of workers in Ireland, is slavery.”