Unions will demand that the Government include honouring basic workers’ rights as part of future public procurement contracts at upcoming public sector pay talks, SIPTU Services Divisional Organiser, Adrian Kane, told a rally in Dublin today.
“We are calling on the Government to ensure Ireland’s first National Public Procurement Strategy, currently being developed by the Office of Government Procurement, includes strong protections for workers and puts collective bargaining and fair employment standards at the heart of how public contracts are awarded,” he said.
Around one hundred SIPTU, CWU, Mandate, INMO, FSU and UNI Europa activists attended the demonstration outside the Office of Government Procurement on Mayor Street, Dublin, at lunchtime. The rally coincided with Ireland assuming the Presidency of the Council of the EU, which will place the Irish Government at the helm of negotiations on Europe-wide public procurement reform.
Adrian Kane said: “Public procurement policy has a direct impact on the wages, conditions and job security of thousands of workers in essential contract services. Too often, contracts are awarded based simply on the lowest cost, with little regard for the workers delivering these vital services.
“At the upcoming public sector pay talks, we must use our relative strength in the public sector to benefit all workers. That means ensuring working men and women in lower-paid jobs in the private sector aren’t left behind.
“We can do that by delivering something substantial on public procurement reform. It must be ensured that contracts with companies that are being paid from the public purse provide employees with a right to trade union representation and other basic entitlements.”
SIPTU Sector Organiser, Ed Kenny, said: “We need to get back to one big movement, not public sector worker versus private sector worker. That distinction came into being in 2008 to divide people. Wherever unions have power, we have to try to use it strategically for the benefit of all workers.
“In the Government’s Action Plan on the EU Directive on Adequate Minimum Wages, there is a clause concerning the establishment of a pilot scheme that would build a weighting in public procurement tenders for a company that recognises trade unions. We need to see this implemented for the benefit of workers if the Government is serious about improving collective bargaining coverage in our economy.”