9


Unions welcome Nash Bill on bogus contracts


Labour leader Brendan Howlin with the joint SIPTU/NUJ delegation led by Ethel Buckley, Deputy General Secretary, SIPTU; Séamus Dooley, NUJ Irish Secretary; Kieran Fagan, NUJ Irish Executive Council treasurer; Seamus Doyle, Chair, Musicians Union of Ireland, and Padraig Murray, Chair, Irish Equity Group, SIPTU.


THE National Union of Journalists has welcomed publication of a Labour Party Bill to tackle bogus self- employment contracts. The Bill has also been


welcomed by ICTU and SIPTU. Irish Secretary Séamus


Dooley and Kieran Fagan, Irish Executive Council treasurer, attended the recent launch of the Bill by Senator Ged Nash. Later Kieran and Séamus attended a joint SIPTU/NUJ meeting with Labour Party leader Brendan Howlin. The Protection of


Employment (Measures to C o u n t e r F a l s e S e l f Employment ) Bi l l 2017 proposed by Senator Nash would put all workers on an equal footing in situations where they are carrying out the


same duties, but are not legally designated as ‘employees’. Séamus Dooley said: “We


hope there will be cross-party support for this Bill. The media is one sector where there is strong evidence that workers are being forced to accept self- employed cont racts even though they are clearly being employed to do the same work, in the same way as colleagues. “In 2007 a Code of Practice


was introduced with criteria designed to determine whether a worker is an employee or a genuinely self-employed sub- contractor but this has not adequately addressed the situation. The situation in RTÉ is of particular concern but t h e r e a p p e a r s t o b e a contagion within the media industry. “Workers are in a catch 22 situation where they are forced


to declare themselves as self- employed and then denied the right to trade union representation or access to the WRC when they wish to challenge their enforced status – because they are not employees. “There are no objective


criteria used in forcing workers to be self-employed and there is no voluntary element to the ‘choice’ of


status, since the alternative is no contract at all. “This Bill suggests a route


towards fairness and includes access to the WRC where employment status is in dispute.” At the meeting with Mr Howlin, he endorsed the union call for action on bogus self- employed and noted the ex tens i ve wor k al ready undertaken by the ICTU.


sel f -employed


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11