Trade union seeks redress on bargaining rights

A major trade union says it is a “national embarrassment” that shortcomings in the collective bargaining rights afforded to Irish workers were criticised by the United Nations Human Rights Council.

Speaking at his union’s biennial conference in Killarney, IMPACT president Kevin O’Malley said the collective bargain rights in this country were “seriously out of line with most developed nations, international standards, and European legal judgments”.

He said the International Labour Organisation’s Committee on Freedom of Association had called on the Government to review its legislation to ensure that international freedom of association and collective bargaining principles were respected in Irish law.

“It is a national embarrassment to have shortcomings in Irish collective bargaining rights criticised at the United Nations Human Rights Council,” he said.

“The Government keeps saying it will put this right. It’s in the Programme for Government... Now they need to get on with it and give it the priority it demands.”

Mr O’Malley said that when the conference is addressed by the Taoiseach tomorrow, it will call on him to fix “the shameful and embarrassing legislative shortcomings that deny Irish workers the right to have their union negotiate for them”. Unions say that, to meet the Programme for Government commitment, Irish legislation needs to:

* Give workers a legal right to join a union and to have the union effectively represent them;

* Outlaw victimisation or adverse treatment for joining a union or seeking to be represented;

* Safeguard against inducements designed to stop workers joining or being represented by a union;

* Set out legal definitions and obligations over collective bargaining practices and facilities.

Six hundred delegates are representing the union’s 63,000 members.