Congress General Secretary Patricia King has strongly criticised a proposal from Fine Gael leadership candidate Leo Varadkar to ban strikes in essential public services, saying it would "meet strong resistance from workers and trade unions and would not be accepted."
Responding to the proposal, Ms King said: "We have a voluntarist system of industrial relations that has served us well over the decades and this proposal would bring that to an end.
"It bears all the hallmarks of an ill-thought out idea launched in the heat of an electoral contest and designed to pander to right wing elements. It would introduce an entirely new and negative dynamic to industrial relations and would represent a significant backward step.
"In addition, given that the right to strike is so fundamental to democratic societies and is recognised as such at an international level, any attack on that could well see Ireland in breach of a range of international obligations and treaties governing such freedoms," Ms King said.
