Motion no: 4
Conference notes the recent Congress report on precarious employment that has highlighted that precarious working practices are now pervasive throughout both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Conference further notes that in the Republic of Ireland some 7% of the workforce are working in temporary employment and in Northern Ireland 6% of workers are in temporary or non-permanent working arrangements.
The Northern Ireland District Committee of SIPTU is concerned that in all measured indicators, the growing use of precarious forms of labour have increased since the 2008 financial crash and that there is evidence to suggest precarious forms of labour are now becoming structurally embedded and were not simply a response to the recession.
Conference acknowledges that precarious employment curtails innovation, blocks capital investment for decent paying high skilled jobs and prohibits the retention of skills for firms which rely on such employment practices. There is a short-termism which is detrimental to individual workers and society at large. The inequality of such employment practices also highlights the disproportionate effect among women, the youth and those with below degree educational attainment.
Whereas Zero-hour contracts are not just the preserve of call centres, care workers and fast food outlets, the referred to congress report highlights that they are also prevalent in the public sector, even in areas such as health and education, where our density is strong.
Consequently, Conference calls on the Northern Ireland Committee of Congress:
- To continue to campaign to end zero-hour contracts. This will include calling for a ban on the use of zero-hour contracts in any employment where a Trade Union recognition agreement exists, with this call supported by co-ordinated industrial action where necessary.
- To lobby for more robust legal protections for categories of worker who fall outside of current employment protections so as to address the scourge of bogus self-employment including (but not limited to) reference periods for changes to existing contracts of employment to automatically make said workers permanent.
- To explore an educational strategy to ensure that union members recognise the need to understand that workers on zero-hour and precarious contracts are in a relatively weak position to take on their employers precisely because of their precarity, that most will be working alongside workers on full-time contracts and that such precarious colleagues feel this injustice keenly.
- To explore an industrial strategy on a sector by sector basis, to include Industrial action, lobbying and protest to address precarity in areas where there is existing union density so that these union members in secure work can deliver better and more secure conditions for all.
