New workers' rights laws mean Joint Labour Committee system ‘not fit for purpose', Ibec says

Irish Independent

30-05-2025

In a submission to a government department, Ibec is critical of the Joint Labour Committee system.
These committees, which include employer and union representatives, set legally binding employment conditions and rates of pay for workers in sectors including childcare, contract cleaning and security.
The employer group claimed that significant legislation on workers' rights recently means it is difficult to find an incentive for employers to participate.
Ibec said these laws include statutory sick pay, extra leave, and minimum-wage increases while legislation is pending on pension auto-enrolment and surrogacy leave. It made the submission to a recent Department of Enterprise public consultation on the promotion of collective bargaining.
Collective bargaining involves talks between employer and union representatives on behalf of groups of workers on their terms and conditions.
Under an EU directive, each member state in which collective bargaining coverage is less than 80pc must come up with an action plan to promote collective bargaining by the end of the year.
'Ibec is of the view that the Joint Labour Committee structure, as it currently operates, is not fit for purpose in the modern workplace,' its submission said.
It said 'employment regulation orders' drawn up by these committees are not collective agreements.
As a result, it said they will be of 'limited value' to any action plan on collective bargaining that Ireland produces.
It said it has become increasingly difficult to identify traditional areas of collective negotiation that are not regulated by statute.
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'In the last five years, we have seen a significant legislative-driven agenda resulting in the introduction of statutory sick pay, the extension of statutory leaves, introduction of new statutory leaves, increases in minimum wage, with further implementation or legislation pending on auto-enrolment for pensions and further leaves such as surrogacy leave, to name but a few,' it said.
It said the intent of the Joint Labour Committee system is to regulate pay and conditions of employment.
'If statute already does so, Ibec submits that it is difficult to identify an incentive for employers to participate in the operation of Joint Labour Committees.'
However, it said action is required to strengthen the capacity of the social partners to engage in collective bargaining on wage setting in individual workplaces.
It said dedicating funding to training will help promote collective bargaining.
It welcomed a government commitment to 'unlock' the National Training Fund, which will have a surplus near €2bn this year.
'We believe that the provision of collective bargaining training should focus on those employee and employer representatives in companies which are already engaged in collective bargaining or have agreements in place to recognise a union,' it said.
It said it believes that a 'good faith engagement' process involving a single meeting between an employer and union may play a role in Ireland's action plan to promote collective bargaining. However, after this it said an employer could continue to hold their position 'not to recognise a union'.
The employer representative group said it does not believe that a statutory entitlement to trade union access to the workplace should be introduced.
It said providing for a right of access to workplaces, whether physical or digital, would raise significant constitutional, legal and security issues.