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Freelance Workers to Regain Union Rights
Posted on January 12, 2015
Esther Lynch: Legislation & Social Affairs Officer, Irish Congress of Trade Unions
Esther Lynch, Congress Legislation & Social Affairs Officer
A new ruling from the European Court of Justice (CJEU) may force authorities across Europe to reverse policies that have resulted in the effective denial of full union rights to freelance workers, for over a decade.
The ruling – delivered by the court in December - arises from a case taken by Dutch unions which challenged the classification of freelance musicians as individual business ‘undertakings’.
Under competition law this meant they were not entitled to bargain collectively with their employer.
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The Charter of Corporate Rights
Posted on December 12, 2014
David Begg
Sometime in the not too distant future an Irish government could move to increase the minimum wage or introduce a living wage (http://www.livingwage.ie/), in order to boost growth and living standards.
Nothing very extraordinary in that, except perhaps that it runs counter to current orthodoxy which claims that driving down wages is the only way to secure recovery.
But after six years of this self-defeating nonsense, we are left with embedded depression and over 26 million people out of work across the Eurozone.
In such circumstances, it is entirely rational for electorates and governments to think anew about policies and politics that might actually work.
That would be the norm in any modern, democratic society.
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