People from outside the EU should be given work permits in their own right after six months, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions has told the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue. It has also called for asylum-seekers to be given the right to work if their applications are not processed within six months.
These are among the recommendations contained in an ICTU report to the Minister entitled "Migration and Immigration: Changing the face of Irish Society". It was prepared for ICTU by Mr Paddy Walley.
The report proposes the establishment of a national monitoring committee within the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. This should have union and employer representatives to monitor the operation of the work permit and work visa systems.
ICTU says the work permit scheme, which allows employers to recruit individual workers for a year at a time, "provides totally unbalanced power to the employers and leaves the immigrant insecure and vulnerable".
It calls for the transfer of the permit to the worker after six months. "This will give them power to assert their rights and will allow them to change jobs, as is possible under the visa work authorisation scheme."
Without such an arrangement the immigrant worker must either leave the State or enter the black economy if the employer sacks him. The report also questions the logic of having work permits that only last 12 months and work visas that last two years.
"The reality of the likelihood of permanency of residence must be recognised once a person is given permission to work. "The message of the permanency of this change needs to be delivered clearly and regularly by the Government, and other opinion leaders, as well as spelling out the benefits which these new Irish are bringing. Immigrants should hear clearly that they are welcome as new members of Irish society and not just welcomed as economic units."
ICTU calls for integrated structures at national and local level. These could be based on widening the remit of the Reception and Integration Agency to cover the social needs of economic immigrants as well as asylum-seekers, or through new structures. It also recommends FAS courses, especially in language skills, be extended as part of this programme.