Siptu urges regulation of agency workers INTEGRATION will suffer if employment agencies continue to be unregulated, a Siptu official has warned.
Barnaba Dorda, an organiser with Siptu, Ireland’s largest union, told Metro Eireann that the phenomenon of agency and contract workers who work side-by-side for vastly different pay and conditions amounts to “the separation of people”.
He added: “Bertie Ahern has said we have to integrate immigrant workers, so legislation to protect agency workers is a very good solution, the only solution.”
Barnaba, who is originally from Poland, said that after the story broke last Thursday (in Metro Eireann and on RTE Radio 1’s Morning Ireland) about the concerns of agency workers at Musgrave Super-Valu Centra on the Fonthill Road, “many people from agencies [workers] were calling me, telling me they have problems”. He said such agency workers tend to be working in the food distribution and meat industry areas.
Barnaba’s comments come amid calls from the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu) for legislation to ensure that recruitment agencies are “not used to circumvent equality provisions in employment law and that agency workers are not treated as ‘second-class citizens’.”
Ictu’s statement read: “Ireland, the UK and Hungary are the only three EU members that do not legislate for equal treatment of agency workers, meaning it is perfectly legal for such workers to be paid less and have worse working conditions than permanent employees.”
The call for new legislation came after an Ictu survey of jobseekers revealed that the majority believe that some recruitment agencies discriminate by not sending “certain” candidates forward for interview. According to Ictu’s legislation and social affairs officer, Esther Lynch, the increasing use of agency workers is aiding the creation of a legally-sanctioned, two-tiered workforce.
“Congress (Ictu) has received numerous complaints which highlight suspicions that some recruitment agencies are being utilised by some employers for ‘equality avoidance’ – in other words, to circumvent equality provisions of employment law,” she said.
“Our survey of jobseekers reinforces this, highlighting the strong belief that some agencies will ‘filter out’ certain candidates during the selection process. According to the survey, the most likely to suffer such a fate would be pregnant women, older people, those with children, or someone with a disability – even where that disability has no impact on their ability to do the job in question.
“With the use of agency workers on the rise, it is clear that Irish legislation urgently needs to be updated, otherwise we will create a two-tier workforce characterised by huge inequality in terms of pay and conditions.
“That means sectors of the workforce – be they Irish or international – are de facto second class citizens, with less rights, protections and lower pay than others doing the same work,” Lynch added.
“That is a situation which Congress cannot accept and completely contradicts the stated, official policy of creating a high value, high wage economy and society.”
Measures to tighten up practices in the employment agency sector are included in the latest social-partnership agreement, Towards 2016 – but have yet to be implemented.
He added: “Bertie Ahern has said we have to integrate immigrant workers, so legislation to protect agency workers is a very good solution, the only solution.”
Barnaba, who is originally from Poland, said that after the story broke last Thursday (in Metro Eireann and on RTE Radio 1’s Morning Ireland) about the concerns of agency workers at Musgrave Super-Valu Centra on the Fonthill Road, “many people from agencies [workers] were calling me, telling me they have problems”. He said such agency workers tend to be working in the food distribution and meat industry areas.
Barnaba’s comments come amid calls from the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu) for legislation to ensure that recruitment agencies are “not used to circumvent equality provisions in employment law and that agency workers are not treated as ‘second-class citizens’.”
Ictu’s statement read: “Ireland, the UK and Hungary are the only three EU members that do not legislate for equal treatment of agency workers, meaning it is perfectly legal for such workers to be paid less and have worse working conditions than permanent employees.”
The call for new legislation came after an Ictu survey of jobseekers revealed that the majority believe that some recruitment agencies discriminate by not sending “certain” candidates forward for interview. According to Ictu’s legislation and social affairs officer, Esther Lynch, the increasing use of agency workers is aiding the creation of a legally-sanctioned, two-tiered workforce.
“Congress (Ictu) has received numerous complaints which highlight suspicions that some recruitment agencies are being utilised by some employers for ‘equality avoidance’ – in other words, to circumvent equality provisions of employment law,” she said.
“Our survey of jobseekers reinforces this, highlighting the strong belief that some agencies will ‘filter out’ certain candidates during the selection process. According to the survey, the most likely to suffer such a fate would be pregnant women, older people, those with children, or someone with a disability – even where that disability has no impact on their ability to do the job in question.
“With the use of agency workers on the rise, it is clear that Irish legislation urgently needs to be updated, otherwise we will create a two-tier workforce characterised by huge inequality in terms of pay and conditions.
“That means sectors of the workforce – be they Irish or international – are de facto second class citizens, with less rights, protections and lower pay than others doing the same work,” Lynch added.
“That is a situation which Congress cannot accept and completely contradicts the stated, official policy of creating a high value, high wage economy and society.”
Measures to tighten up practices in the employment agency sector are included in the latest social-partnership agreement, Towards 2016 – but have yet to be implemented.
