The Irish Courts have traditionally held a hostile approach to any notion of collective bargaining rights in Ireland. This can be evidenced from a 1982 High Court decision where it was held that “[t]here is no duty placed on any employer to negotiate with any particular citizen or body of citizens”. However, this Irish approach seems to be falling out of sync with the general approach adopted by the EU and one of the major campaigning points of the current joint Fine Gael-Labour programme was to introduce Irish legislation to deal with the issue of collective bargaining. Minister Richard Bruton has now formally asked for submissions from all interested parties on collective bargaining, with the deadline for submission being Thursday 28 February 2013.
It has been reported that once the consultation deadline has closed that the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation will aim for the publication of a Bill by summer 2013 and the introduction of legislation by winter 2013.
Employers are actively encouraged to enter submissions on this topic as it will definitely be hotly pursued and heavily lobbied by employee bodies and trade unions who will be heavily in favour of such legislation.
The Irish Position: the “Ryanair Case”
Any such legislation will have to heavily bear in mind the well-known 2007 ‘Ryanair case’. In that case Ryanair were seeking to challenge a decision of the Labour Court which required Ryanair to engage in collective bargaining on foot of the Industrial Relations (Amendment) Act 2001. Ryanair brought the matter all the way to the Supreme Court Court and successfully had the Labour Court ruling overturned, with the Supreme Court stating that any such legislation needed to “be given a proportionate and constitutional interpretation so as not unreasonably to encroach on Ryanair’s right to operate a non-unionised company”.
The EU Position
As it stands, the Irish position above appears to be quite out of sync with the EU approach. In Demir and Baykara -v- Turkey the European Court of Human Rights recognised that the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) contained a right to collectively bargain under Article 11. Furthermore, the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union which was introduced into Irish law contains a similar provision as Article 11 of the ECHR. Given that Irish law needs to be compatible with the ECHR and the Charter it is difficult to see how the current Irish position can remain the same. Indeed, Minister Bruton has stated that the Department are seeking to “reform the current law on employees’ right to engage in collective bargaining (the Industrial Relations (Amendment) Act 2001), so as to ensure compliance by the State with recent judgments of the European Court of Human Rights”.
Peninsula Business Services will be forwarding our own submission on collective bargaining and should any client wish to contribute then they may forward their own submissions to dublin.advice@peninsula-ie.com by Thursday 21st February. If you have any queries on collective bargaining then please phone the 24 Hour Advice Service on 01 855 50 50 and one of our experienced advisors will be happy to assist.
