Following the NI Executive meeting on Thursday 11 June which discussed yet again the Good Jobs Bill and yet again failed to approve its passing to the NI Assembly for debate, ICTU Assistant General Secretary Gerry Murphy said
This decision not to allow the Good Jobs Bill to progress before MLAs take their holidays will squeeze out any time for the legislation to get through it’s stages. It is possible that it may get through before March 2027, but only with a very fair wind and the complete consent of all of the Executive parties. The bill has the support of a clear majority of elected MLAs in the Assembly chamber and on the Economy Committee.
This legislation is not 'half-baked'; rather it has been extensively consulted upon and discussed at for two years, with Employers going along with the process until their joint letter last April. The objections raised by business lobbyists were frankly risible and were responded to by unions at the time. Workers are enjoying these rights across the Irish Sea in England, Wales and Scotland.
It tells voters something about the access which really matters - not for workers to access support from a trade union, but for business lobbyists access to the corridors of power.
The objection raised was about unions gaining a 'right to request' access to meet with workers for recruitment and representation. Without Trade Union access, every unreasonable manager and supervisor will have an unaccountable veto over whether workers get better work-life arrangements or terms of employment.
A signal has been sent from behind the closed doors where this veto was exercised. The business lobby is plainly not interested in consulting or negotiating on an equal footing with social ‘partners’. In turn, Trade Unions aren’t interested in bargaining with bad faith operators who say they want better relations with ‘their’ workers and then run off to the NI Executive crying for a veto.
It’s a signal about industrial relations that is not being missed on the shop floor.
