SIPTU has highlighted the need for adequate legislation to protect workers’ rights to ensure they can avail of living wages and stable employment in order to build a sustainable economic recovery. SIPTU Services Division Organiser, Ethel Buckley said: “Claims today by IBEC representatives that the introduction of new legalisation to protect workers’ rights, as proposed in the recently published Duffy Cahill Report, could undermine businesses are false.“A sustainable recovery can only be built on the provision of stable jobs that provide an adequate wage for workers so they can play a full role within their local economies and in doing so support other workers’ employment. To this end, laws which provide adequate protections for workers in terms of redundancy payments, wages and hours of employment all benefit our economy and society.”She added: “That is why SIPTU members are demanding that the new protections proposed for workers in the Duffy Cahill Report are legislated for as matter of urgency by the new government. These protections can ensure that no other employer will attempt to inflict on their employees the treatment suffered by the loyal Clerys workers when their workplace was closed without warning last June.“We will also be campaigning to ensure measures are taken to curtail the spread of zero hour, low hour and if-and-when contracts which do not provide workers with stable wages or conditions of employment. Research clearly indicates these types of exploitative contracts are opposed by the overwhelming majority of employees currently forced to accept them.“However, SIPTU does support IBEC in its demand that all current laws are untilised by the State to ensure that the persons involved in the despicable closure of Clerys Department Store are held to account for their actions.”
SIPTU calls on Government to prioritise protection for workers to ensure fair recovery
