The Irish Congress of Trade Unions has criticised the government's failure to extend proper protections to "posted workers", pointing out that this leaves the workers vulnerable and "unable to vindicate their rights where breaches and abuses occur."
In a letter to Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Mary Mitchell O"Connor, TD, Congress General Secretary Patricia King said: 'the decision not to fully transpose Article 9 of the Directive (EU Directive 2014/67/EU) on posted workers will make it extremely difficult for them, their trade unions and even inspectors of the Workplace Relations" Commission to vindicate their rights where breaches and abuses arise," Ms King said.
She said posted workers would be "vulnerable to exploitation and abuse and the opportunity to provide them with some form of protection has been lost for reasons that seem quite dubious."
In the letter to Minister O"Connor the Congress General Secretary pointed out that the government had declined in the transposition process to ensure that workers posted to Ireland would be capable of representation by trade unions while working here.
A posted worker is someone dispatched to another EU state on a temporary basis by their employer, to carry out a specific task.
Congress Official Fergus Whelan said: "From a worker protection perspective, there is no good reason to act as the government has. The failure to transpose Article 9 in its entirety highlights a certain hostility towards workers representative bodies and to the principle of collective bargaining."
