Today the NI Assembly begins its summer recess,
said ICTU Assistant General Secretary Gerry Murphy.
Trade Unions are proud of the part we have played in ensuring workers have legal entitlements to holidays and time off to help recuperate from their working days. We do not begrudge the MLAs we elect to a decent break. They are workers too and deserve time with their families and friends.
It is of regret however, that the summer recess means that the time needed to debate and legislate for a whole raft of other workers’ rights cannot happen until September, or even later if the veto being wielded at the NI Executive at the behest of some business lobbyists and special interests is allowed to continue.
By the time the NI Executive resumes its meetings, workers and businesses in England, Scotland and Wales will be dealing with the implementation of new workers’ rights, including trade union access for workers to benefit from the advice and collective power of a union. This is normal for any advanced labour market, and not, as one business lobbyist howled yesterday, ‘the most far-reaching Trade Union powers anywhere in the world creating access for the Unions into all businesses.’
For the policy chair of the FSB to make such a hysterical and wildly inaccurate claim is bad enough – what is even more disturbing is that there are some on the NI Executive who are prepared to listen to wild assertions and ignore the facts, the evidence and two years of consultations and discussions involving trade unions and these very same lobbyists.
They are repeating the same mistake made ten years ago over Brexit when enough people in power decided that they ‘have had enough of experts’.
Those who then cheered for Brexit gave us the Irish Sea trade border. Now, they risk creating a sea border for workers’ rights.
The Executive and their allies must relinquish their veto and let the majority of MLAs who have clearly expressed their support for the Good Jobs Bill do their job and legislate for it straight after the summer recess. We don’t have time left for these games.
