Legislation to protect agency workers and prevent the erosion of pay and conditions will be a deal-breaker for unions in the next pay talks, according to the General Secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions.
David Begg told the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment that it was essential that new legislation should provide equal treatment for agency workers so that they could not be used to bypass existing employment protection.
He said the trade union movement would not have any credibility if it left this problem unresolved.
Trade unionists outlined to the committee instances of exploitation of agency workers, who they said were being used in increasing numbers, and were being paid less than direct employees.
They were also being afforded few if any benefits in terms of pensions, sick pay, overtime, shift payments, and the going rate for the job.
Mr Begg said agency workers should be entitled to equal treatment with direct employees after six weeks in an end-user company, but that the Irish Government was opposing this protective measure.
Mr Begg conceded that trade union leaders had got it wrong during the last pay talks, in that they had not sought sufficient protections for agency workers.
He acknowledged that at the time trade unions did not think that the problem was as acute as it had turned out to be, and admitted they had signed up to something that was inadequate.
Meanwhile a senior official of the Unite trade union, Jerry Shanahan, warned that if the issue were not addressed rapidly, it could generate 'a hotbed of racism'.
He warned as the downturn hits the economy, particularly the construction sector, it was local Irish labour who were covered by legally enforceable pay and pensions rights who were being let go.
He said the people being kept on are non-Irish labour with fewer rights and lower pay who were disguised through below the radar employment arrangements.
