BUSINESS GROUP Ibec has claimed that the introduction of mandatory trade union recognition would deter multinationals from creating jobs in Ireland.
At an employment law conference in Dublin yesterday, Ibec disputed a suggestion that the Lisbon Treaty created a legal requirement for a change to the laws in Ireland.
Ibec director Brendan McGinty said flexibility in industrial relations was “more important than ever” in light of attempts to bring about an economic recovery.
“Mandatory trade union recognition or a legal right to collective bargaining would not create a single job in this economy and would instead threaten many thousands of jobs by damaging our capacity to attract and retain inward investment,” Mr McGinty said.
A law requiring union recognition by employers would “act as a barrier to job creation”, he added.
Workers in Ireland have the constitutional right to join or form a union, regardless of the attitude of their employer. But employers are not legally obliged to recognise the union in negotiations.
Some trade unions and political parties have suggested that the provisions of Article 28 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, which refers to a right of collective bargaining and action, oblige employers to engage with unions.
But Ibec solicitor Loughlin Deegan said yesterday there was “nothing in Article 28” that could be read as requiring Ireland to legislate for mandatory trade union recognition. Ibec believes member states still exert “considerable control over how collective bargaining and strike action are regulated”.
Ibec sent a submission outlining its opposition to mandatory recognition to a Government-appointed review group on employee representation last October. However, this group, set up as part of the social partnership process, has not met since the end of 2009.
Fine Gael and Labour back the introduction of laws guaranteeing the right of workers to collective bargaining. Former Fine Gael enterprise spokesman Leo Varadkar indicated last September that this right would become a reality in Irish law, as well as a fundamental right in the European charter, were Fine Gael returned to government.
Trade unions were divided on the Lisbon Treaty with some, including Unite and the Technical, Engineering and Electrical Union (TEEU), opposing it on the grounds that it did not satisfactorily protect workers’ rights.
Ahead of the first Lisbon Treaty vote, Sinn Féin launched a Bill to incorporate collective bargaining rights into the Constitution. Sinn Féin, the TEEU and Unite rejected the idea that the European charter confers the right to union recognition and called on the Government to guarantee such recognition by changing the law.
The issue of recognition for collective bargaining purposes has become hugely important for trade unions following a Supreme Court ruling in 2007 in a case involving Ryanair, which does not recognise unions.
The unions believe this ruling hinders their limited rights under earlier compromise legislation to represent workers in non-unionised companies. These rights exclude collective bargaining.
Multinationals like Intel and Dell are not unionised and the expansion of this sector in the 1990s coincided with a fall in the percentage of Irish workers who are members of trade unions.
