Motion on Employment Rights - 25th January 2006

Motion on Employment Issue – 25th January 2006
Mr. Norris: I am sorry to inhibit the Minister of State in this way but I am glad to have the opportunity to speak and to provide time for my colleague Senator Henry who will now have time to speak. I am glad too that the Minister of State has the facility to read at such great speed because otherwise we would not have had time to speak. What he said was rather interesting.
Mr. Coghlan: He is a very efficient speed reader.
Mr. Norris: At the beginning of his speech he referred to social partnership. It is a pity he was not here for the Order of Business today because my colleague, Senator Ross, raised an important point about the transfer of powers extra-democratically to this unelected and not entirely representative body. I agree with the Minister of State that social partnership and such discussions have laid the foundation for much of our economic and social progress, whose results I welcome.
There is, however, to use a cliché, a democratic deficit. Members on both sides of the House this morning suggested that representatives of the social partners come into the House to engage in an information and question session. This would be very useful because it would bring this type of negotiation back into the democratic process. I hope the Minister of State will support that call and assist us in responding to it.

I regret the fact that there is an amendment to the motion. What is the point of it? The motion is concerned with the protection of workers, developing registered employment agreements, devoting increased resources to the Labour Inspectorate, and ensuring enforcement and Revenue inspection. We all know that is right. The Minister of State could not possibly quibble with any single item in the motion, yet we get this stupid, knee-jerk reaction all the time, which is demeaning politics. It is a case of the Government side saying "White" if the Opposition says "Black". If an Opposition motion states anything, the Government amends it by deleting everything in the text and saying "We commend the Government for its wonderful work". The public is not fooled by this and it is a waste of time. If only we could get together and agree a central ground in the interests not of our parties but of the workers of this country, we would be much better off.
The Gama construction workers are mentioned in the motion. It is a shame and a reproach on every party in this House that it took Deputy Joe Higgins, the Independent Socialist Member in the other House, to unearth this scandal which had been concealed. All the matters which have been correctly mentioned by the Labour Party were found not to have been operated properly. It was only the investigative action of Deputy Joe Higgins that managed to bring this matter to the surface and rescue the situation for Gama workers. That is a great pity.
The fact that these abysmal conditions exist can be ascertained by putting a human face to them. I wish to cite some quotations that were issued from the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. A chef from Romania stated, "I moved to Ireland in 2001 on a work permit. Since then I've had five or six jobs. In my last job I started on €2 an hour." I pay my cleaning lady €20 an hour. What is the minimum wage, it is €9 or €10 per hour?
Mr. Killeen: It is €7.65.
Mr. Norris: Well, €2 is less than a third of that. Sarah, a domestic worker from Sri Lanka, stated "The December 2004 tsunami destroyed my family's land. My father and uncles have no work. I have to stay here so I can send money to them. One day, my employer threw a wet, dirty cloth in my face and told me to clean the floors. Her children sat at the kitchen table laughing at me. I cried and went to my room. I am regularly used as target practice."
Akim, an asylum seeker from Nigeria, stated "My employer, who is a farmer, paid me just over €2 an hour to pick fruit and stones and do other general work. I work long hours. I worked until my hands bled." That is slavery. Apart from anything else, nobody will pay a blind bit of notice to this debate. It is over the critical time period and we will never get this onto Oireachtas Report or anywhere else. Therefore, instead of fighting for a mean-minded and stupid advantage, why do we not do the decent thing, unite and accept that we need to assist people in these critical situations. I applaud the Labour Party for tabling this motion which I intend to support.
I welcome the call in the motion for reform of the existing work permit system to allow for a green card. Last night, I had a meal with a friend who is from outside this country. He is a decent lad who regularly attends a gym. He was complaining because he pays his taxes and is legally resident here. He does very good work for this country. The gym he attends is full of Polish, Latvian and other workers who are employed by builders. I know that those in the construction industry are good friends of the present Government, but sometimes one must look at one's friends. Those workers in the gym were being paid €50 or €100 a day in cash. In Britain, when Irish labourers were treated like this it was called the lump. They used to go off and spend all their money on drink. As we speak, however, we have that situation in this country. Of the 20 people from various eastern European countries to whom my friend spoke in the gym last week, not one of them paid a cent in tax, although they were earning reasonably good money. My pal is not a mean-minded person. Quite reasonably, however, he said: "I pay my taxes. These people are making large amounts of money. The entrepreneur is doing well out of it, but what happens when one of them gets sick? We'll all have to pay out of our taxes to keep them in hospital."
In equity, therefore, we need to examine both ends of the scale - people who are illegally kept in slavery, and foolish workers who, like many Irish people in the past, take cash wages, do not register for income tax and then expect the State to support them. This is a great pity.
I welcome the green card proposal, but I do not think it goes far enough. I accept the response of the ICTU which described it as a bad and defective law that needed a good deal of amendment. I will instance a couple of matters to which the Minister of State referred in his speech. One is the question of work permits. There is a real problem in that people are dependent on their employers for the permits. The green card proposal is supposed to get around that difficulty but it does not because the ownership of the work permit does not transfer. It should be in the possession of the worker. Why can workers not be allowed to have such permits legally? Currently, it is up to a new employer to obtain a new work permit, which is a mistake. There should be a transferable work permit attaching to the worker and his or her talents. This is a serious and important point because if such workers want to change jobs, the prospective employer must obtain a new permit. That is wrong in my opinion.
The Minister of State has indicated that under the proposed legislation, green card holders will be allowed to bring their spouses to Ireland. That is true up to a certain point, but I would like to hear a full articulation of the Government's policy regarding the reunification of families. That has not happened and it is not exclusively the prerogative of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment.
Another problem is a domestic Irish one which fits into this debate. It is a scandalous situation concerning Irish Actors' Equity. I will declare my interest here because I am a member of three trade unions. Earlier today, Senator Ross claimed he was a member of a trade union, but I am member of three - the Irish Federation of University Teachers, the National Union of Journalists, and Irish Actors' Equity. We had an extraordinary situation in Irish Actors' Equity whereby the Competition Authority, mar dhea, coerced it into signing an agreement whereby it would not represent freelance actors. It signed an agreement that it would not even provide or share with any self-employed actor undertakings or information relating to minimum fees to be paid to other self-employed actors. What is going on here? It cannot publish a fees guide for freelance photographers or reporters either. In addition, where named musicians are being engaged, the Musicians' Union is prohibited from telling its members what is the going rate. That is farcical. The Minister of State should get stuck in and resolve the situation. These rights were enjoyed by Irish workers since 1901, yet the Competition Authority has seen fit to try to take them away.
This shames all of us because we are supposed to be a cultured country and we have contributed enormously not only to the culture of Europe but also of the world. However, the average overall payment for performing artists in specialised areas is €7,200 a year. Income from all theatre work is €10,000, while the rate for performing artists is €5,000. The Minister of State can read the figures in the report for himself. People are earning this pittance but it is nonsense to have the Competition Authority, which is a statutory body, stating that these poor devils cannot be told the going rate for a job. The Government should examine the matter.