Bill would provide sick scheme in meat processing and other sectors
The Dáil will tonight debate a Bill which would force employers in the meat processing, horticulture and dairy sectors to provide a sick pay scheme for any workers on a general employment permit.
The Bill comes in the wake of widespread outbreaks of Covid 19 in meat plants. By September this year, official records show there have been over 126 outbreaks in meat factories and over 3,600 workers have been infected.
Speaking today TD Richard Boyd Barrett said: “We know from talking to workers and their representatives that a major factor in the spread of Covid 19 was the absence of a decent sick pay scheme, we also know that it’s a hugely profitable sector. The Government has dragged their feet on a statutory sick scheme and the current proposals from Minister Varadkar go nowhere near far enough in addressing the lessons of the pandemic in how we treat these migrant workers”.
Addressing other provisions in the Bill, Gino Kenny TD said “The Bill aims to address a number of other injustices affecting migrant workers on employment permits. It will give them greater rights to switch employer in their first six months working here, as many are effectively tied to one employer and feel they can’t complain or refuse to work in what are often clearly unsafe and exploitative circumstances and it will ensure all migrant workers have access to the WRC to hear their grievances when employment laws are broken.”
Greg Ennis, Divisional Organiser, Manufacturing Division, SIPTU, said:
“SIPTU views this Bill as a significant step in the right direction to protect workers and our essential food supply as we learn to co-exist with Covid-19. While it does not address all issues affecting low paid workers in Ireland, these amendments to earlier legislation are surely a big improvement on earlier commitments by the Tánaiste to bring about ten (10) days statutory occupational sick pay by 2025, which is unfit for purpose and simply too little, too late.
“It is now time for all TD’s who ‘talk the talk’ about the essentiality of low paid food processing workers, to ‘walk the walk’ and act positively to support this Bill. The existing Permit system is strongly tilted in favour of the employers and this has led to gross exploitation of workers over many years in Ireland by way of cramped, ill-equipped and unsafe living conditions, poor health and safety provision and shameful terms and conditions, particularly in those unorganised employments, where Covid outbreaks are commonplace and wherein sick pay and pension provision is non-existent.”
Michael O’Brien, Fisheries Campaign Lead in Ireland for the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) commented:
“The provisions of this Bill speak directly to the situation confronting hundreds of non-European migrant fishers, both documented and undocumented working on Irish flagged fishing vessels. I would particularly highlight the issue of the near impossibility of retrieving unpaid wages for undocumented workers. Put simply undocumented workers or unions acting on their behalf cannot take a case to the WRC because they take the position that an ‘illegal’ contract cannot be enforced. This is a perverse incentive for employers in some sectors to deliberately take on undocumented workers.
“The government will say that there is a provision in the Employment Permits Act where the Minister can direct the WRC to investigate a report of non-payment of wages to undocumented migrants and take a civil case against the employer on behalf of the migrant worker. However, that provision has only been successfully used on one occasion in the seven years it has been on the statute books. That is why this Bill is necessary. It hands the initiative to the worker and the trade union movement to reclaim unpaid wages.”