To mark 50 years of Ireland in the European Union, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions has published this collection of essays by current and former trade union leaders reflecting on the impact of EU membership on workers’ rights over the years.
Our general secretary Owen Reidy said: “While membership of the European Union has had a significant, positive effect on our working life, most people have no idea of the full extent.
“From equal pay for women and men doing the same work to a living wage for our lowest paid workers, a shorter working week, family leave and safe workplaces, EU membership has played a pivotal role in improving workers’ rights and working conditions.”
He added: “But EU membership has not been costless for workers nor has the Irish trade union movement always been enthusiastic about membership. Workers and jobs paid dearly in the progression towards free trade competition when we joined the Common Market in 1973 and again in the conditions of the €85 billion bailout agreed with the troika in 2010.”
Our president Kevin Callinan said: “One of the earliest dividends from EU membership for workers was the ending of the marriage bar in the civil service, which had denied tens of thousands of women, including my own mother, access to employment and careers.
“But the marriage bar still casts a long shadow in terms of reduced pension income for individual women and a gender imbalance in senior leadership positions throughout the public and private sectors. The recently agreed EU Pay Transparency Directive will help close these gaps for this and future generations of working women.”
Owen Reidy said: “Across fifteen papers we set out first-hand accounts and insights in to landmark EU-related events and some of the many ways EU membership transformed workers’ rights and working conditions in Ireland. Taken together they present a recent history of the immense progress in our workplaces and the not always straightforward journey getting there.”
