OPINION:The need to transpose EU workplace directives grows as the treaty rerun looks badly handled, writes JOE COSTELLO
THE LISBON Treaty isn’t quite the burning issue that it was for much of 2008. But it hasn’t gone away. The Government agreed with the other 26 EU member states in December 2008 to put the treaty to a second referendum in 2009 if certain assurances and legal guarantees were forthcoming.
Five issues had been identified as reflecting the Irish electorate’s concerns and the EU states agreed to give assurances on all of them.
The issues were a commissioner from each member state and guarantees on neutrality, taxation and the socio-ethical issues of abortion, family and education.
Finally, the protection of workers’ rights was acknowledged to have “high importance” attached to it by all the member states.
Ironically, the Charter of Fundamental Rights, an integral part of the Lisbon Treaty, would have enhanced workers’ rights as well as a host of others such as social, political, economic, cultural and administrative rights by providing a “rights proofing” of all future EU legislation.
That is why the Labour Party was first off the mark in supporting the Lisbon Treaty in November 2007 – even before the Government had signed it. Thus, from a Labour Party perspective, it is absolutely essential that there be no derogation from or opt-out of the Charter of Fundamental Rights by the Government as was done by Britain.
It is equally essential that the Government address Irish workers’ domestic concerns about lack of protection prior to embarking on a future referendum.
The Labour Party is particularly mindful of the fact that 40 per cent of people surveyed in the Millward Browne survey after the referendum in June 2008 stated that the issue of workers’ rights was a “significant” reason for voting No.
During the boom years of the Celtic Tiger, successive Fianna Fáil-led governments with Mary Harney as Minister for Enterprise and Employment and Charlie McCreevy as Minister for Finance until 2004 revelled in light regulation, minimal inspection in the workplace and extravagant tax opportunities for developers.
Inspectors in the workplace were as rare as hens’ teeth. Eventually when the National Employment Rights Authority was established on a pilot basis in 2007, it revealed the reality of rampant employee exploitation the length and breadth of Ireland. The underbelly of the Celtic Tiger was exposed.
Thus, the first requirement by the Government is to ensure that the Employment Law Compliance Bill (2008) – which is before the Dáil at present and which puts the authority on a statutory basis – is passed into law without delay.
Second, the Government is now obliged to transpose the temporary (agency) workers directive into domestic legislation by 2011. The history of this directive is a salutary one.
It was proposed by the European Commission as far back as March 2002 so as to provide a minimum level of protection for workers who were recruited by agencies across the EU. The Government stubbornly opposed this directive until all its allies, including the UK, had slipped away in shame and the EU parliament was able to approve the directive in November 2008. Ireland now has three years to transpose this directive into Irish law.
The Government’s failure to supervise the workplace and protect Irish and EU workers caused much resentment in the run-up to the Lisbon Treaty referendum. It is imperative that the Government bring forward the enabling legislation immediately and have it passed prior to any new initiative on the Lisbon Treaty.
Finally, there is the posting of workers directive. The purpose of this is to facilitate the free movement of Labour in the EU. The inadequate transposition of this directive into law by some member states has permitted an interpretation by the European Court of Justice that threatens the hard-won rights of workers in these member states. High-profile cases such as the Lavalle, Viking, Rouffert and Luxembourg cases in Sweden, Denmark, Germany and Luxembourg have caused alarm bells to ring in the EU-wide trade union movement and caused concern among Irish voters in the run-up to the Lisbon Treaty.
In Ireland, the directive was casually transposed into law almost as an oversight, a small section under the heading “Miscellaneous” tagged on to the Protection of Employees (Part-Time Work) Act 2001.
The Government must now revisit the legislation and amend its lax transposition so as to prevent future exploitation of Irish and foreign workers and prevent the undermining of equality in the work place.
These three legislative initiatives should be front-loaded into the Dáil and Seanad work programme between now and the summer recess in mid-July, so that they can be enacted prior to the Government embarking on a new Lisbon Treaty referendum. Three months have now elapsed since the Government agreed with the other EU member states the conditions required for a second referendum.
Despite commitments by the Taoiseach and Minister for Foreign Affairs, there has been no dialogue or consultation with the main Opposition parties. The Opposition has been kept in the dark about the text of the legal guarantees: we know nothing about the enabling legislation; we are ignorant of any intention to re-establish the Referendum Commission; and we don’t even know if the referendum will be held in the summer or the autumn.
Considering the importance of the Lisbon Treaty for Ireland, the Government’s handling of the first referendum was incompetent. Their handling of the second referendum is becoming increasingly irresponsible.
Joe Costello TD is Labour Party spokesman on Europe and human rights