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A Fair Place to Live and Work

The Challenge

Labour believes that we must combine a strong, enterprising and innovative economy, enhancing productivity and value added with robust employment standards and fair terms and conditions of work. We reject the view that Ireland's prosperity requires employers to have free access to an unlimited supply of cheap, casualised labour in preference to a strong workforce enjoying collectively agreed terms and conditions of employment.

Across Europe there is a divergence between those who would promote a 'race to the bottom' in wages and employment standards, and those who insist on the maintenance of decent terms and conditions of employment and the European social model.

Labour will work to maintain the European social model, not as an alternative to, but as a foundation for an economy which is moving up the value chain and creating more and better jobs. We must ensure that Ireland does not build the next phase of its economic development on the basis of a low wage economy.

Economic growth results from a combination of both greater numbers in employment and higher productivity per employee. Ireland must seek a

balance between the prevention of labour shortages, which might create damaging bottlenecks in the economy, and the wholesale casualisation of labour . The latter poses the risk of an increased reliance on an exploited immigrant workforce and the consequent driving down of wages, particularly for less skilled employments.

We should seek to develop a Labour market where job security is enhanced through investment in people and their skills, and through policies which ensure that people made redundant retain a higher proportion of their earnings and are facilitated in rapidly finding new jobs.

A fair society does not treat immigrant workers as an end in themselves. Newcomers to Ireland have the same entitlement to dignity, family life, education, accommodation and other essential services as Irish nationals do. If we are to lay the foundations for an equitable and inclusive society, it is important that we adopt a holistic approach to immigration and the needs of a more diverse population.

Ireland can do better

Labour is committed to making Ireland a fair place to live and work, with strong enforcement of fair labour standards for all workers, fair immigration rules and conditions, and measures to promote the integration of newcomers to our society.

What Labour will do

Protecting Employment Standards

People working in Ireland are entitled to fair and rigorously enforced terms and conditions of employment.

What Labour will do:

• Develop and extend the Registered Employment Agreements model which gives binding status to wage agreements reached at sectoral and employment level.
• Better resource the Labour Inspectorate and ensure more effective enforcement and prosecution of offences.
• Ensure targeted enforcement and Revenue inspections of the bogus subcontractor and agency worker issue in the construction sector.
• Insist that contractors working for local authorities and other public bodies meet minimum labour standards.
• Create a right for self-employed individuals who enter into or work under contracts "personally to execute any work or labour" to join trade unions and to engage in collective bargaining.
• Support the EU Temporary Workers Agency Directive, up to now opposed by the Irish government.
• Make permanent provisions to protect against the displacement of workers as envisaged in the Protection of Employment (Exceptional Collective Redundancies and Related Matters) Bill 2007.
• In light of the recent Supreme Court decision, we will restore the original spirit of the Industrial Relations (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2004 through legislation and procedural change.
• Support measures at EU level to ensure that minimum labour standards are applied in all ships that commence and end their journeys in the European Union.
• Eliminate the "sub-minimum" wage, by the removal of exemptions on the minimum wage based on age, except in the case of apprenticeships.
• Ensure the collection of better data on labour market conditions.
• Ratify the International Convention on the Rights of Migrant Workers and enshrine its protections in our domestic laws.
• Enact a new comprehensive Employment Act, consolidating and codifying the existing twenty-plus pieces of labour law in a coherent and efficient form.
• Strengthen existing Health and Safety legislation, with provision for a crime of corporate manslaughter, as recommended by the Law Reform Commission.
• Enact effective whistleblowers legislation, applicable to the private sector, to protect persons from disciplinary action and defamation where disclosure is in the public interest.
• Expand the Labour Relations machinery and increase the number of Rights Commissioners. Employers and employees will be actively encouraged to seek and use mediation as a method of resolving disputes, so as to reduce the increasing costly adversarial methods that have placed a burden on businesses in general and on small businesses in particular.
• Update and renew the Social Partnership model to take into account the new concerns of a modern Ireland. Issues such as climate change and social equality will take centre stage. The Houses of the Oireachtas will be brought closer into the system, rather than simply rubber-stamping the outcome.

Supporting Work-Life Balance

Too many hard working families encounter obstacles in achieving their preferred work-life balance. Labour believes that there should be a greater element of choice in how families combine the need to earn a living with the need to care for others. Women in particular should not be penalised when they avail of flexible working options.

What Labour will do:

• Bring in new laws providing for workplace flexibility and part-time, flexi-time and job-share working. These will be targeted at parents, carers and those wishing to upskill or reskill or to re-enter the workforce after a period of absence. We will provide for real equality between men and women and nobody will be penalised for availing of flexible working conditions, career breaks or part time work.
• Bring in two extra public holidays, to bring Ireland up to the EU average.
• Secure working-time arrangements that support lifelong learning and the development of a stronger, knowledge-based economy.
• Progress towards paid parental leave for up to one year, with an option for fathers to take part of that time.
• Establish a legal right to take up to three years' career break. We will explore appropriate fiscal support for employers.
• Introduce a right to part-time work, subject to reasonable conditions.

Flexicurity

Labour favours the development of policies based on the concept of flexicurity, i.e. the promotion of employment security through investment in the education and skills of employees, better protection of income after redundancy, and active policy to ensure rapid re-employment after a person loses their job.

What Labour will do:

• Promote life long learning and up-skilling through the measures set out under 'The Learning Community' elsewhere in this manifesto.
• Examine means to provide higher levels of support in the aftermath of a redundancy, combined with measures to rapidly secure replacement employment or education/ training for the individual.
• Seek to eliminate long-term unemployment, through the design and introduction of a new comprehensive Social Employment Programme, providing persons currently registered as long term unemployed with a range of training options, work placement and employment with social, cultural and community organisations across the country.

We must ensure that Ireland does not build the next phase of its economic development on the basis of a low wage economy.

Ensure easy transferability of pensions between

We should seek to develop a Labour market where job security is enhanced through investment in people and their skills

Pension Rights

Elsewhere in this document, we set out our proposals to achieve a comprehensive settlement of the pensions issue, to ensure that everyone has an adequate income in old age.

What Labour will do:

• Review our pensions system. The social partners, through the National Economic and Social Council will be entrusted with the task of agreeing a new system of pensions, both for the public and private sectors and for state-provided pensions, to take account of the fact that most people will have a number of jobs during their time in the workforce and many will have multiple pensions by retirement age. The resulting proposals will feed into a new generation of Social Partnership talks to address the pensions issue specifically. employers and between pension providers and allow for easy amalgamation of multiple pensions.
• Protect the pension rights of employees working in firms that are sold as going concerns. In future, the purchaser of an existing company will be required to take on responsibility for the pension entitlements of the existing employees and the state of the pension fund at the time of purchase.

Immigration and Immigrant Rights

Labour believes that immigration to Ireland is a positive development that both enhances economic growth by alleviating labour shortages and also enriches Irish society through the contribution of people from other cultures to our national life.

But it is clear that immigration is being encouraged by some not because it is of value in itself, but simply because it is feeding the perceived needs of our economy. However, this risks fostering low pay and poor conditions, a form of exploitation which immigrants themselves are most likely to experience. It is therefore vital that people coming to Ireland to work should enjoy the same terms and conditions of employment as Irish workers.

Furthermore, people who come to Ireland to work need and are entitled to housing, transport and health care. They are also entitled to live with their families, including dependent children and dependent relatives.

In government we will address the particular rights of immigrants as follows:

• A flexible Green Card system will apply to all immigrants from non-EEA countries. Such a new immigration initiative will be based on a real assessment of our labour market requirements and could be adapted from time to time as circumstances change.
• Work visa allocation will be based on an ongoing assessment of the needs of the Irish labour market. The occupation, education and language skills of applicants will be considered as criteria for issuing these visas within national quotas. Work visas will entitle immigrants to work in our country legally and immediately upon arrival, for a fixed number of years. Bureaucracy and administration will be reduced to a minimum.
• Immigration for the purpose of family reunion will be facilitated, so that the number of immigrants in employment is recognised as carrying with it an additional number of dependent non-nationals who will have an entitlement to residence in Ireland with a wage-earning family member.
• Family reunification is one of the most pressing concerns of non-nationals living in Ireland. As such, the provisions that govern this entitlement will be spelled out in primary legislation rather than ministerial orders or practice guidelines.
• The ability to attract overseas students is, amongst other things, a market opportunity. The salability of the product is dependent on adequate prevailing standards. Rogue educational institutions and exploitative employers can only undermine the potential for growth in this area. We will enforce standards through regular inspections of educational institutions that target overseas students, whether in the public or private sector.
• Students from overseas attending accredited institutions will be free to work to finance their studies, just as their Irish peers do.
• We will grant leave to stay to the small number of aged-out minors who remain in this country.

The Asylum Process

Although the number of asylum seekers has greatly reduced, real problems remain. There is a huge disparity between the numbers granted refugee status at the initial stage and the numbers successful at the appeal stage. This raises questions as to the soundness of the initial procedures. Inconsistencies and flaws in the decision-making process lead to expensive court actions and delays. The process requires urgent overhaul to bring it into line with best European and international practice.

Labour in government will ensure the following rights and guarantees for asylum-seekers:

• The right to an appropriate interpreter.
• The right to an oral hearing before a decision is made.
• That decision-makers behave sensitively and are properly qualified and trained and have adequate information about the country of origin.
• That effective and resourced representation is available to all asylum seekers.
• That time limits relating to the application are fair and not oppressive to the asylum seeker
• That unaccompanied minors applying for asylum should have a legal guardian appointed to represent them in an appropriate manner.
• Restricting the grounds upon which applicants may be rejected as "manifestly unfounded", to bring Ireland more into line with the UNHCR and the EU Council of Ministers' resolution.
• That the standard of decision-making be improved by independent and objective performance review.

Social integration

Planning for a fair and efficient immigration system involves more than devising rules and procedures. The significant number of immigrants arriving in Ireland prompts the need for a range of services, including accommodation, training and language courses.

Labour in government will take lead responsibility in this area from the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, which has entirely legitimate concerns of its own but which is not best equipped to meet the demands of social integration, and transfer it to another government department. We will also introduce more relevant and meaningful citizenship ceremonies when people are awarded citizenship of Ireland.