More people are working in Northern Ireland than at any time in the past century.
The debate about work has moved beyond a focus on quantity, to a recognition that we need to focus on quality.
To enable this, our emerging economy must reflect not only the structure and best practice characteristics of the more prosperous European economies, but also incorporate their established and proven industrial relations mechanisms. We need to embrace these changes to secure the economic success and fair society we deserve. Good jobs are central to the continued evolution of our economy and development of a prosperous society founded on equality and fairness. These Good Jobs are described in the New Decade New Approach Agreement [page 44], as ones
where workers have a voice that provides a level of autonomy, a decent income, security of tenure, satisfying work in the right quantities and decent working conditions.
Fulfilling this pledge represents a necessary step in delivering a more prosperous, fairer, and more productive economy. An economy with working people at its centre that can adapt and better manage the inevitable transformations of the coming years. This process
begins with identifying the impediments to progress and then creating solutions through a new employment framework.
We are not alone in thinking that people at work are better off in trade unions. You would expect us to think that, but an increasing consensus is emerging that the whole of society benefits from people at work having access to a union, and unions having access to
workers. The international evidence is clear, and there is widespread acceptance that when workers have a strong voice in workplaces, that collective voice works for not only the individual benefit of each worker with better pay and conditions, but also for a wider, fairer, and more productive economy. An economy which can adapt to manage change and the inevitable transformations of the coming years.
