An abridged version of the below blog was presented at a panel discussion (Chaired by the Irish Time's Kitty Holland) held at the EPIC museum on 10th December (International Human Rights Day) 2024.
Question 1. How has the legal and policy work of the Commission contributed to advance human rights and equality in employment?
Appropriate choice of venue from a trade union perspective as Mother Jones is celebrated here in EPIC. Born in Cork in 1837, the horrors of the famine (marked outside here on the quay by the famine memorial) drove her family across the Atlantic where she became a famous labour activist in the United States in the early 1900s. I recall her famous war cry: “Pray for the dead, and fight like hell for the living”, one unions around the world now use to mark Workers Memorial Day. It is also very appropriate that ten years of the important work of IHREC is being marked in this way.
It would be remiss of me not to refer the fact that for much of the ten years the Commission has not been overly reflective of the voice of organised labour. The absence of Commissioners reflective of the interests of workers has been very striking. That's not the fault of IHREC but it is a serious omission – one we sought unsuccessfully to overturn when the Equality Authority and Irish Human Rights Commission merged to form IHREC.
IHREC along with the ESRI did produce an excellent report on decent work Monitoring Decent Work in Ireland - IHREC - Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, but the follow through on Workers Rights, including collective bargaining, has not been present in the past decade.
I would also like to acknowledge the role of IHREC in funding training in the area of equality and human rights in affiliate unions such as the INTO and for ourselves, our gender pay gap reporting project was a great example of how the fund contributed towards workplace initiatives.
There has also been a range of impressive legal work:
- Code of Practice on Equal Pay and Code of practice on Sexual Harassment and Harassment at Work
- Nano Nagle School V. Marie Daly (SIPTU represented Marie Daly - it is clear that the duty of an employer to provide reasonable accommodation for an employee with a disability is to be ascribed a broad ambit / to take appropriate measures, where required in a particular case, to enable the employee to, inter alia, continue in employment / . A wise employer will consult with the employee with a disability before making decisions about his or her future employment.
- 2017 - NHV v Minister for Justice and Equality - the right of an individual living in direct provision to earn a livelihood.
- ITF v Minister for Justice and Equality Ireland and the Attorney General which led to changes to the Atypical Work Permit Scheme for Migrant Fishers.
- Captain Successfully Challenges Pregnancy Related Discrimination by Defence Forces
And many others - too many to mention.
Question 2. David, you are a member of the Commission’s Worker and Employer Advisory Committee, may you tell us more about its role and the contribution it has made to progressing equality at work?
The welcome establishment of a sub group (Worker Employer Advisory Committee - WEAC) was as a result of the removal of spaces for trade unions and employers on the board of the Commission. it was a hard-won concession and I want to acknowledge the hard work of former Commissioner, Kieran Rose, in that regard.
On the issue of collective bargaining, the work of WEAC, although important, has skirted around the edges in order to achieve polite but important progress on areas of common interest.
Having said that it has been a very useful space, coordinating the organisation of a range of excellent Conferences, including:
- Achieving Equality at Work: Promoting Socio-Economic Equality in Employment Conference 2024
- IHREC Employer Guide - Inclusive Employment for Traveller and Roma Communities (to be published in early 2025).
- Achieving Gender Equality At Work: Care Policy and Practice Conference 2022
- Achieving Equality at Work Promoting Racial Inclusion and Diversity in Practice Conference 2021
- Achieving Equality at Work: Reasonable Accommodation in Practice Conference 2019
- Reasonable Accommodation Code of Practice (minister yet to sign off)
- Reasonable Accommodation Employer Guide (to be published in 2025).
- Ibec and ICTU Reasonable Accommodation Passport was also featured at this event
One of the important contributions of these events I have particularly welcomed is the involvement of the ILO as key contributors. The only tripartite body in the UN system it is a wealth of knowledge on the world of work and these events have exposed many to some of the excellent material produced by the International Labour Office. This material informs the negotiation of international labour standards at the annual international labour conference. These in turn are ratified by member states and greatly influence national and regional labour legislation.
Question 3: (about the future)
Looking to the future, what is the change that you would like to see happen?
Briefly – three areas that we would like to see IHREC throw its considerable Human Rights and Equality muscle behind in the coming years:
1. Collective Bargaining
In the context of new Chief Commissioner, Liam Herrick (and indeed Eoin Ronayne's membership of the Commission) I think/hope that it's perhaps a good time to make the argument for a human rights led approach to collective bargaining. The trade union movement would like to challenge IHREC to follow the logic of the excellent decent work report and to recognise that the achievement of socio-economic rights for workers is restricted by the absence of the fundamental right to collective bargaining.
The Respect at Work campaign is a civil society campaign fighting for legislation to improve workers’ rights and outlines how Ireland has some of the weakest workers’ rights in Western Europe. That means far too many people are afraid to stand up for better at work. 400,000 workers in Ireland are low paid. Many more can’t afford to cover their bills. Working hours are getting longer, contracts are getting less secure and people are struggling. It’s time to demand better. It’s time to demand respect at work.
In the recent General Election campaign, trade unions asked parties and candidates to take action to ensure that everyone has the right to stand up for better working conditions without fear of retribution from their employer. Workers can face victimisation or even dismissal when they try to unionise. Laws are in place to prevent this happening in other countries and Ireland should be no different. Many politicians took the following pledge:
“I pledge to support legislation which promotes collective bargaining, protects workplace representatives and ensures the right to access a trade union at work.”
This must include full transposition and implementation of the provisions of the Adequate Minimum Wages Directive.
2. Pay Transparency (Directive transposition by June 2026)
The Government has to transpose and implement the Provisions of the Pay Transparency Directive that promote Collective Bargaining. We would also like to see the process used to show greater ambition in terms of pay gap reporting by also introducing reporting on Intersectional pay gaps.
Our colleagues in the TUC have stated that there is a disability pay gap of 17.2% in UK. There is no reason to believe that we are any better here. According to the ESRI, migrant workers in Ireland earned an average of 22% less per hour than their Irish counterparts between 2011 and 2018, and non-Irish women experience “a double earnings penalty”, earning an average of 11% less than non-Irish men and 30% less than Irish men.
The Labour Government in the UK has committed to introducing mandatory disability and ethnicity pay gap reporting for employers. This measure is recognised as a first step towards closing such gaps and could make a significant contribution here also.
3. Domestic Sexual and Gender based violence (DSGBV)
IHREC could also make a contribution to ensuring zero tolerance of any form of DSGBV in workplaces and to empowering workplaces to be supportive environments for victims of domestic violence.
