Siptu has claimed that employers are using the growing phenomenon of obtaining staff through employment agencies to undermine and dismantle agreements on standards, pay and conditions.
Siptu regional secretary Patricia King told delegates in Tralee yesterday that by securing staff through agencies, employers were able to divest themselves of any responsibility for workers and obtain open-ended flexibility. She said agency workers were receiving pay that was lower than agreed rates and were also not receiving sick pay, overtime or pensions.
Ms King said the use of agency workers was becoming increasingly common in areas such as construction, hotels and aviation. She said Siptu had discovered that one distribution company was paying regular staff €18.50 per hour while the rate for agency workers was €11.20.
Ms King said the trade union movement should stand up and oppose such developments as they were undermining agreements on standards, pay and conditions.
However, she said that the level of opposition and resistance to any remedies the trade union would seek to achieve in this area would be huge, as employers saw that cheaper labour represented higher profits.
"When you start rattling the pockets of the employers, by Jove do you get an animated response. All the time we spent over in the Department of the Taoiseach seeking movement on employment rights, the greatest resistance we met was when we mentioned agency workers," she said.
Ms King said Ireland was one of three countries in Europe where it was legally permissible to treat agency workers differently to regular staff and this was not compatible with social partnership. She said this issue would have to be addressed "if we are in there talking again".
Ms King said that only last Friday Siptu had reached an agreement with Tesco on the operation of its new distribution centre in north Dublin which will have about 1,000 staff. She said the number of agency workers would be capped at 10 per cent and that they would be paid the same rates as regular employees.
Des Derwin of the Dublin regional executive council said that two years when the union met in Cork few people believed that an Irish Ferries-style situation could be reproduced on land by the extension of agency workers. He said the campaign on agency workers had to be won.
"We are looking for legislation to underpin equal treatment for agency workers. Secondly we want to organise agency workers, especially where they are working alongside Siptu members and we are seeking in local agreements that agency workers will become permanent and directly employed within a short and specific time", he said.
Paul Hansard of the construction branch said that agency workers were not a new phenomenon in the building sector although employers had initially claimed that they were just "temporary top-up" staff. However, he said that this had been a lie.
