A LucidTalk poll published last week in the Belfast Telegraph revealed that just one in four people think Stormont has improved their lives since its restoration two years ago.
The same people were asked their opinion about aspects of the Executive’s proposed Good Jobs Bill. This legislation will give all workers the right to be able to access a trade union in their workplace for help with employment issues.
This proposal has the support of 80% of voters across Northern Ireland.
Among political parties, level of support was in excess pf 90% for Sinn Fein, SDLP and Alliance voters while the majority of DUP and UUP voters supported the proposal by 61% and 60% respectively.
The Good Jobs Bill also contains a proposal to give workers on a zero-hours contract the right to be offered a contract that reflects the hours they actually work. DUP voters back this proposal by 71%, UUP voters by 72% with larger levels of support from Alliance (91%), SDLP (97%) and Sinn Fein (90%).
LucidTalk also asked if ‘workers should be compensated if their employer cancels a shift without reasonable notice’, another clause in the legislation, and this was supported by 74% of DUP voters, as well as a large majority of voters from SDLP (90%), UUP (78%), Alliance (95%) and Sinn Fein (91%).
Some 2,975 people took part in LucidTalk’s online poll from January 16-19.
Jacquie White, Chair of the NI Committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions said,
These figures confirm that this legislation is overdue and there is an appetite for it across voters from all parties.
It is two years since Stormont returned from suspension with a pledge to improve people’s lives, with better wages and better working lives. Workers in GB have recently secured these new rights through legislation passed by Westminster. Our NI Assembly has the responsibility for these matters here and needs to step up.
When you ask them, people understand the issues. Workers need access to unions in order to ensure their rights in the Good Jobs Bill are respected and their voices heard. If we say we want action on matters such as zero-hours contracts, we need unions in the workplace to make sure the rules are being followed fairly. This is something which will protect good employers from a handful of exploitative bad bosses.
With recent criticism from the public, the level of support across the board for these proposals makes the Good Jobs Bill an easy ‘win’ for all political representatives.
This delivers a practical approach to improving the economy, improving productivity and improving working lives.
Details of the LucidTalk poll were published by the Belfast Telegraph today.
