Government must act quickly to implement landmark collective bargaining recommendations

Labour spokesperson for Workers Rights, Senator Marie Sherlock has today (Wednesday 5^th October) warmly welcomed the work of the High-Level Group on Collective Bargaining and Industrial Relations and said the ball is now firmly in the Government’s court to implement the very clear, incisive and landmark recommendations.

Senator Sherlock said:

"Labour wants to see the recommendations of this landmark report implemented in full and without any unnecessary delay. The work of the High-Level group is comprehensive, fair and builds the hard work of so many trade unionists and industrial relations practitioners down the years. They all have all done the workers of this state a tremendous service.

"The ball is now firmly in the Government’s court and what we don’t want is Fine Gael members and some of their interest groups to obstruct the recommendations that we believe will dramatically improve the livelihoods of workers in this country and in particular, low wage workers with no viable mechanism to negotiate better terms and conditions.

"It is highly significant that both employers and trade unions came to the table to thrash this out and is proof of what can be done when those with competing interests sit down and work together for the common good. The Tanaiste is on the record saying that our laws are weak when parties refuse to engage. We fully agree. We have known for a very long time that employers in particular sectors have used a veto to refuse to engage and change in this area is truly historic, welcome and long overdue.”