The trade union movement is seeking the Government to establish a special retraining and income protection fund to assist workers adversely affected by Brexit.
In a new policy document published on Wednesday, it called for such funding to be earmarked for workers facing redundancy in vulnerable sectors and businesses to allow them to transition to new employment.
The Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu) said in the document a dedicated Brexit impact funding line should be established to provide Government investment and equity to boost indigenous industry in the face of the challenges of Brexit.
Ictu said this could require the Government to seek exemptions from existing State-aid rules and the EU should recognise the unique circumstances that would necessitate such a move.
The new document said there was an urgent requirement for investment in infrastructure, particularly in transport, energy and housing.
It said the challenges posed by Brexit meant these issues could no longer be ignored.
“This should require an end to the straightjacket of fiscal rules that, effectively, discriminates against public investment.”
"Congress believes that in light of Brexit, the Government and the European Commission should abandon an overly restrictive interpretation of the fiscal rules where capital investment is required."
The Ictu document also argues Brexit must not be used as a pretext to dismantle hard-won rights and protections or to drive down employment standards generally.
Ictu urged governments in Ireland the UK to make a public declaration that no existing rights or protections would be lost or eroded as a result of Brexit.
Incoming Ictu president Sheila Nunan told a debate at the organisation's biennial conference in Belfast on Wednesday there was a danger of sleep walking, not deliberately, into Brexit.
She said result in potentially “ a new European catastrophe”.
She said this could have unforeseen consequences for workers in the UK, the wider European community and in Ireland, north and south.
Pádraig Murray, president of the actors' union Equity, warned a hard border post Brexit could have huge implications for major film and TV productions such as Game of Thrones, which is filmed in Northern Ireland.
He said there were Irish and European actors based on both sides of the border who move d across it regularly to shoot various productions.
"We have actors from all over Europe living and working in Dublin and the same thing applies in Belfast. The largest production in the world currently is being shot here, Game of Thrones. It provides great work for actors down south. They move up north for work on that production.
"Down south we have Vikings being shot so a hard border would have a huge impact on that sort of thing."
The Irish regional secretary of the Unite trade union Jimmy Kelly told the conference that "workers should not pay the price of a Tory Brexit".
“Instead we seek a Brexit which guarantees jobs and provides the free market access necessary to attract investment and sustain the growth of our indigenous industries; ensures no race-to-the-bottom on corporate taxes, whether by Westminster or the Belfast Executive; provides full access to international research initiatives and transnational funding streams; and “ imposes curbs on greedy bosses who seek to exploit the threat of Brexit to suppress wages.”
