SIPTU General Secretary, John King said today (Wednesday, 24th June) the upcoming Irish Presidency of the Council of the European Union is an opportunity to support Irish workers’ legal right to collectively bargain and to defend robust public services.
Speaking following a high-level meeting at Liberty Hall today with Iratxe García Pérez, President of the S&D Group, Dublin MEP, Aodhán Ó Ríordáin and senior trade union leaders, John King emphasised that the upcoming Irish EU Presidency must be a turning point for workers’ rights and public service infrastructure.
SIPTU General Secretary, John King said: “We are entering a crucial political window with the upcoming Irish EU Presidency. For too long, Ireland has lagged our European peers, operating under an ’employer veto’ system that denies workers the fundamental right to have their trade union bargain on their behalf as equals. This is entirely unacceptable and leads to fractured industrial relations.
As part of the discussions on the implementation of the Governments action plan under the Adequate Minimum Wages Directive, SIPTU will do all we can to deliver the most effective action plan on collective bargaining and we urge the S&D Group to continue to do all you can do to push this issue of the rights for workers in Ireland to have the right to engage in collective bargaining underpinned by legislation in the European Parliament. This means holding the Irish Government to account when they present their mid-term report on the implementation of the action plan.
“A strong economy on paper means nothing if does not improve the lives of working people and their families, if they cannot feel it at the checkout or see it in their local communities. As we approach the Irish EU Presidency, the expansion and protection of our public services must be prioritised over deregulation and outsourcing.
“From healthcare and the National Ambulance Service to local government and education, our public service workers have endured immense pressure. We need a definitive end to the outsourcing of public jobs and a concerted European effort to invest in public utilities, state agencies, and the community sector. Reliable, well-funded public services are the bedrock of social cohesion and democracy, and they must be aggressively protected from a race to the bottom.”