Will electricians strike provide shock therapy needed to end Government’s paralysis over Collective Bargaining legislation?
The timing of the TEEU strike is interesting. It is not just about pay (a 4.9% increase recommended by the Labour Court almost five years ago as opposed to the 10% cut employers are threatening to introduce unilaterally), it is about defending the Registered Employment Agreement shot down last year by the Supreme Court. The strike notice, due to expire on February 24th, comes just as the Cabinet is to begin examining proposals to replace the redundant REAs (and Employment Rights Orders) with new legislation.
Power Workers Defending Workers Rights
The issue is therefore not just about a few thousand ‘sparks’ fighting to preserve decent pay and conditions but a stand in defence of a system that has protected basic workplace rights of 300,000 other workers, ranging from construction to catering, since 1946 – and in some sectors since the 1920s. The threat of a strike that could quickly effect vital elements of the economy might just be the sort of shock therapy needed to shake the Government out of its current state of paralysis.
Of course the new system being proposed will probably be far more ‘top down’ than ‘bottom up’. Instead of workers and their unions agreeing terms with the employers and then registering them with the Labour Court, the Minister for Jobs and Enterprise would make an order, on the advice of the Labour Court, setting terms and conditions following an examination on a case by case basis of the relevant sector, or even individual companies. In addition, there would be new criteria to take account of pay and conditions in neighbouring countries.
A key point will be what constitutes a ‘neighbouring country’, the UK, Germany a member of the Eurozone, the EU, ‘Europe’?
What is not in dispute is that the Supreme Court judgement has left hundreds of thousands of workers at the mercy of the most ruthless employers in the country.
Ironically, the stand being made by the electricians is as much in the interests of Irish employers as workers. Without the protection of such agreements, Gama could return again or Energo, the Serbian electricity company that paid employees as little as €3 to €5 an hour. It still found plenty of recruits willing to give pay €400 each for the privilege. Not surprisingly Energo beat off all Irish competition to secure contracts to renew large chunks of the ESB network. When the TEEU uncovered what was happening Energo was compelled to pay the going rate and soon left our shores.
If there is no protection for decent employment standards then companies such as Energo will return to make a killing at the expense of everyone currently working in the Irish economy. Competition would hit low wage sectors particularly hard and the bottom end of the market in other sectors as well, including the Irish electrical contracting business. Not just employment but safety standards would go by the board. People having their homes rewired by these bargain basement companies could find the term ‘electric chair’ taking on a whole new meaning.
Such a development would also probably kill any modest revival in the domestic economy predicated, as it is, on pay rises. Anti-union employers in bodies such as NECI should be careful what they wish for. Sometimes the greediest elements in our society have to be protected from themselves.
Padraig Yeates
Power Workers Defending Workers Rights
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