The right to collective representation is a basic one appropriate to all workers, President Michael D Higgins has told Defence Forces members, who are seeking to be allowed to affiliate with the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu).
In an address to the Permanent Defence Forces Other Ranks Representative Association (PDForra) conference in Killarney, Mr Higgins said the role played by the trade union movement historically was too often downplayed.
He noted that amid a culture of individualism and “the insatiable wants of the individual over the needs of the group”, only about 25 per cent of workers were unionised today, down from some 62 per cent 40 years ago.
Mr Higgins added that the fight for citizenship and for dignity in the workplace was part of the battle for Irish independence and was still a basic right. The union movement, North and South, had been united in seeking to avoid unnecessary deaths in the War of Independence and the Civil War, he said.
“It is the trade union movement, on an island basis and internationally, that has been most steadfast in opposing sectarianism,” the President said. “The right to be represented, to collective representation, is a basic right appropriate to all workers as is recognised in, among other places, European law.”
He said PDForra was founded 31 years ago at a time when “many members of the military were living in substandard accommodation, working in poor conditions and trying to exist and support families on extremely meagre pay”.
Mr Higgins said it was a matter of the greatest concern that so many Defence Forces personnel were leaving citing better pay on offer elsewhere as a reason.
“The importance of your work and the positive impact which it has in this country and beyond our shores must be valued, recognised and supported,” he said.
PDForra on Wednesday called on Minister for Defence Simon Coveney to permit the organisation to affiliate with Ictu, saying it wanted to be represented at talks on pay and conditions rather than to gain the right to strike.
The organisation, representing more than 6,500 enlisted members, voted in 1994 to be allowed do so, but has been blocked by various ministers for defence. The European Social Rights Committee three years ago said a complete ban on affiliation was not necessary or proportionate.
In his address to the conference, Mr Coveney said he was “very much aware “of PDForra’s strongly held desire to affiliate to Ictu” but that it would be inappropriate to comment further given the matter was being litigated.
Harassment allegations
Regarding allegations of harassment and bullying of women in the Defence Forces, who account for just 7 per cent of the membership, Mr Higgins said there could be “no doubt that the degrading, discriminatory and sometimes violent treatment meted out to female members, or indeed any member, of the Defence Forces is shameful”.
“Strategies, and impunity or evasion, that allow any belittling and demeaning those who are of a different gender, religion or ethnic background than the prevailing majority have no place in any organisation in a democracy,” he said.
Defence Forces Chief of Staff Lt Gen Seán Clancy told the conference that he welcomed an independent review and other measures announced by Mr Coveney following revelations about harassment and bullying in RTÉ’s Women of Honour documentary.
“There is no place for any type of abuse or failure to act on any form of inappropriate behaviour, towards any individual, within the Defence Forces,” he said.
He said many instances brought to light in the documentary were historic, “but many are not” and that he had listened to people sharing distressing experiences in the three weeks since the programme aired.
The Women of Honour group on Wednesday welcomed comments and commitments from Mr Coveney in response to the concerns they have raised.
They said that “for it to finally be widely accepted that there were and still are such devastating systematic problems...is a very positive move in the right direction”.