Labour will guarantee right to union recognition

THE Labour Party will guarantee all workers the right to trade union recognition if and when it comes to power, its leader Eamon Gilmore said yesterday.

Mr Gilmore told delegates there were at least eight commitments on employment rights made in the Towards 2016 social partnership agreement and in the transitional agreement last September which the Government still had not passed into law.

He said those included the Temporary Agency Workers Directive and anti-victimisation legislation.

As well as vowing to make it illegal to discriminate against an employee because they are a member of a trade union, Mr Gilmore made the commitment on trade union recognition.

“The Labour Party in government will also commit to giving domestic effect to the principles, including collective bargaining, enshrined in the Charter of Fundamental Rights, which will become European law if the Lisbon Treaty is passed.”

This would mean that if an employee demands to be represented by a union, a company would have to negotiate with that union on behalf of the employee.

As well as some indigenous companies, this would be unpopular with many US multinationals here which do not recognise unions.

Mr Gilmore put in a caveat that the detail of any legislation on the collective bargaining would be the subject of prior negotiation with unions and employers.

SIPTU president Jack O’Connor welcomed the Labour leader’s commitment, “especially given the reasonable prospect of Labour being part of the next Government.”

“We note that it contrasts sharply with the current Government’s refusal to do so, although it simultaneously supports that very same principle in the Lisbon treaty,” he said.

Claiming Mr Gilmore was “clearly the leader of the opposition in Dáil Eireann”, ICTU general secretary David Begg said: “This movement has been trying to achieve (collective bargaining) for many decades in this country.

“That is the most singular development promised from any party leader and it is very welcome.”

Mr Gilmore also took a swipe at An Bord Snip Nua which is trying to find savings in the public finances.

“Every time I pick up a newspaper, I read another leak about what is supposed to be in the McCarthy report, in what is shaping up to be the longest ‘softening-up’ exercise in the history of the State. Firstly, I do not understand why Fianna Fáil have had to outsource the work of reviewing expenditure to an outside group of consultants.

“Unlike the opposition, Government ministers are part of the apparatus of Government.

“They have available to them the management information of Government departments. Are they not able to reach their own conclusions on what expenditure can be cut? Nor, do I see why the report has to be kept secret. Publish the report, and let’s debate it.”