Motion no: 8
Conference believes the presence of trade unions in the workplace is essential to winning fairness at work. The growth of insecure work and the ongoing issues of underemployment and short-hours contracts make trade unions in the workplace even more important. Trade unions are essential to protecting and representing workers in the modern workplace. Organising the unorganised workers and winning trade union recognition must be a key aim of the Trade Union Movement in Ireland. Trade union rights of access to workforces in workplaces need to be strengthened. Trade unions should have rights of access to workplaces to speak to, advise and represent members. Workers should have the opportunity to join a trade union in their workplace. Trade unions should have the statutory right to access workplaces to put forward and promote the case for trade union membership. Any such statutory right of access would need to be co-ordinated by the ICTU to ensure that it did not develop into competition between unions over membership in a workplace. The ICTU welcomes the right to statutory trade union recognition that exists in Northern Ireland but believes this right needs to be strengthened. The thresholds that unions need to achieve to gain statutory recognition are too high and need reviewing. Currently, to get a ballot on statutory recognition in Northern Ireland at least 10% of the workforce must be trade union members and the union must produce evidence to show that a majority of the workforce are likely to support the union's claim for recognition. To win the ballot, the trade union must get the support of a majority of the votes cast and the votes of at least 40% of the total workforce. Conference agrees that the ICTU, in liaison with the NIC-ICTU, will campaign for: Trade unions to have a statutory right of access to the workplace to promote the bene ts of trade union membership to non- members and to have contact with members.Improvements to the Northern Ireland statutory recognition rules to ensure that ballots on trade union recognition will be held if at least 10% of the workforce joins the union and that a simple majority of those voting in the ballot will be suf cient to grant statutory recognition.
