Too many employers are using agency workers to evade equality laws and erode pay rates, argues David Begg.
Despite the protestations and claims of employers, Ireland probably has the most flexible labour market in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Unfortunately, far too many employers have developed an unhealthy fixation with "flexibility" as the panacea for all economic ills, both real and imagined.
Equally troubling is that too many employers stubbornly cling to outmoded and one-dimensional views of flexibility, in which it has become a synonym for low standards, poor regulation and cheap labour.
It is the view of the congress of trade unions that in the workplace - as in the workplace of our competitors - flexibility and indeed competitiveness are built around a skilled and educated workforce that enjoys all the tools and supports necessary to adapt quickly to changing circumstances. That is where you gain competitive advantage.
But as can be seen in the current debate on agency workers, employers seem determined to try to build future competitive advantage on cheap labour and workers with imagined and non-existent rights.
The employers' contribution to this debate - as outlined by Ibec's Brendan McGinty (Opinion and Analysis, February 20th) - can only be characterised as obscurantist. He dealt with every aspect of employment law relating to agency workers except that which is most crucial to their fair treatment.
Irish equality legislation allows that any worker who feels discriminated against, by comparison with a colleague, can bring a case to have his or her rights vindicated. But there is one rather crucial exception - a worker that has been "supplied" by an employment agency enjoys no such right.
Their conditions, for better or worse, but usually the latter, can only be compared with those of another agency worker, not the full-time staff in the company they are working in. And no matter how long they may be placed in a given company, this condition does not change.
Thus, we have the increasingly common scenario of two colleagues doing precisely the same work with one being paid perhaps half the rate of the other. And it's all perfectly legal. Consequently, agencysupplied workers are redefining the traditional employment relationship for the entire workforce.
Congress does not oppose the use of agency workers, but will do everything necessary to stop them being used to evade equality provisions and to undercut existing wages. Therefore, it is imperative that legislation be enacted which regulates agencies, and confers on their employees the same entitlements as all others in the workforce.
The European Union has tried to get agreement on a directive which could incorporate protections for agency workers and set basic standards below which employers could not go. The most recent proposal was tabled in December and would have seen the right to equal pay and conditions kick in after six weeks, in any given job.
We feel they should start on day one, but were prepared to accept the compromise. Unfortunately, both the UK and Irish governments would not compromise and they blocked the proposal. We are now effectively pariahs in Europe, as virtually all other countries have built such rights into their domestic law. Surprise, surprise, they haven't seen the sky suddenly fall in.
By coincidence, McGinty's article was published just after reports that chairman of Louth County Council Cllr Jimmy Mulroy advocated paying migrant workers less than Irish workers. While he later retracted these remarks, they did provide a revealing glimpse into the business mindset in this country, wherein all standards of equality and decency are subordinate to the pursuit of competitiveness.
Irish business will sooner or later have to reconcile itself to the reality that a sustainable economy needs a cohesive society.
And a cohesive society cannot be built on the backs of exploited workers, whether Irish or foreign.
Moreover, it is not unfair to ask Government where its priorities lie. Will it build a competition state in which the interests of business are elevated beyond those of its citizens? The alternative is a developmental state in which economic and social progress are interdependent. The Government has learned the rhetoric of the latter, but in reality acts to ensure the interests of the former.
Unless Ibec and Government move towards resolving this critical issue, then a chasm will open between them and our movement which it will not be possible to bridge on any other issue.
David Begg is general secretary of Ictu, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. He is also a governor of The Irish Times Trust