The Countess Markievicz Memorial Lecture 2006 The Regulation of Work and Labour Standards: “Is there a race to the botto

1. The Countess Markievicz Memorial Lecture 2006 The Regulation of Work and Labour Standards: “Is there a race to the bottom?” Kieran Mulvey Chief Executive Labour Relations Commission

2. Lecture Outline • Historical overview • Employment Law • The National Industrial Relations System • Minimum Wage in Europe • Migration, Labour Markets, Re-location • ‘The Race Abroad” • Responses to the Threat of Lowering Employment Standards • Conclusions/Observations

3. Historical Overview “The Republic guarantees religious and civil liberty, equal rights and equal opportunities to all its citizens, and declares its resolve to pursue the happiness and prosperity of the whole nation and of all its parts………” (Proclamation of the Irish Republic, Easter 1916). “We declare that we desire our country to be ruled in accordance with the principles of Liberty, Equality, and Justice for all………In return for willing service, we, in the name of the Republic, declare the right of every citizen to an adequate share of the produce of the Nation’s labour………It shall also devolve upon the National Government to seek co-operation of the Governments of other countries in determining a standard of Social and Industrial Legislation with a view to a general and lasting improvement in the conditions under which the working classes live and labour”. (Democratic Programme of Dail Eireann, Dublin, 21st January 1919).

4. 1920s US Trade Union Poster

5. 1920s US Trade Union Poster

6. Principal Employment Rights Legislation Adoptive Leave Act 1995 Carer’s Leave Act 2001 Competition Act 2002 Employees (Provision of Information and Consultation) Act 2006 Employment Equality Act 1998 Equality Act 2004 European Communities (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2000 European Communities (Protection of Employees on Transfer of Undertakings) Regs 2003 Industrial Relations Acts 1946 - 2004 Maternity Protection Act 1994 Minimum Notice and Terms of Employment Acts 1973 - 2001 National Minimum Wage Act 2000 Organisation of Working Time Act 1997 Parental Leave Acts 1998 -2006 Payment of Wages Act 1991 Pensions Act 1990 Protection of Employees (Employers Insolvency) Acts 1984 - 2003 Protection of Employees (Fixed -Term Work) Act 2003 Protection of Employees (Part -Time Work) Act 2001 Protection of Young Persons (Employment) Act 1996 Protections for Persons Reporting Child Abuse Act 1998 Protection of Employment Act 1977 Redundancy Payments Acts 1967 – 2003 Safety, Health and Welfare at Work, Act 2005 Terms of Employment (Information) Act 1994 and 2001 Unfair Dismissals Acts 1977 to 2001

7. Codes of Practice • Dispute Procedures, including Procedures in Essential Services; • Duties and Responsibilities of Employee Representatives and the Protection and Facilities to be Afforded them by their Employer; • Grievance and Disciplinary Procedures; • Compensatory Rest Periods; • Sunday Working in the Retail Trade; • Voluntary Dispute Resolution; • Procedures for Addressing Bullying in the Workplace; • Voluntary Dispute Resolution; • Victimisation; • Access to Part-Time Work; • Drafting:- Code on Information and Consultation; • “Towards 2016” – Code on Domestic Employment

8. Top Six National Minimum Wages in the EU Source: Eurostat

9. Transitional Restrictions on Migrants from Accession States

10. Transitional Measures/Accession Treaty 2003Current Status for the 2nd Phase 2006-2009

11. Top Ten National Groupings Resident in Ireland Poland: 150,000 China: 60,000 Lithuania: 45,000 Latvia 30,000 Nigeria: 28,000 UK: 25,000 United States: 6,000 Philippines: 5,000 Romania: 5,000 Pakistan: 4,500

12. Sectors of Employment of Migrants in Ireland Source: “Here to Stay” AIB Economic Research

13. Directive Principles of Social Policy Article 45 Constitution of the Irish Republic • The State shall strive to promote the welfare of the whole people by securing and protecting as effectively as it may a social order in which justice and charity shall inform all the institutions of the national life. • 2. The State shall, in particular, direct its policy towards securing: • That the citizens (all of whom, men and women equally, have the right to an adequate means of livelihood) may through their occupations find the means of making reasonable provision for their domestic needs. • That the ownership and control of the material resources of the community may be so distributed amongst private individuals and the various classes as best to subserve the common good. • That, especially, the operation of free competition shall not be allowed so to develop as to result in the concentration of the ownership or control of essential commodities in a few individuals to the common detriment. iv. That in what pertains to the control of credit the constant and predominant aim shall be the welfare of the people as a whole. v. That there may be established on the land in economic security as many families as in the circumstances shall be practicable. • 3. 1° The State shall favour and, where necessary, supplement private initiative in industry and commerce. • 2° The State shall endeavour to secure that private enterprise shall be so conducted as to ensure reasonable efficiency in the production and distribution of goods and as to protect the public against unjust exploitation. • 4. 1° The State pledges itself to safeguard with especial care the economic interests of the weaker sections of the community, and, where necessary, to contribute to the support of the infirm, the widow, the orphan, and the aged. • 2° The State shall endeavour to ensure that the strength and health of workers, men and women, and the tender age of children shall not be abused and that citizens shall not be forced by economic necessity to enter avocations unsuited to their sex, age or strength.