Labour Conference supports call for action on collective bargaining

At its annual conference, the Labour Party passed a motion calling for a debate on withdrawing from Government if collective bargaining legislation has not been enacted by this autumn. Presenting the motion on behalf of the Labour Party Navan Road Branch (Dublin Central), SIPTU Organiser, Brendan Carr, said that, “Despite being promised on numerous occasions since 2011 that we would have collective bargaining legislation implemented soon, the Government has still failed to act.” He added: “Delegates if we do not implement legislation on collective bargaining – legislation which is part of our Programme for Government, we would have let down the very people who we claimed we represented when agreeing that programme.”The text of the motion reads:“Conference recognising the importance of Collective Bargaining legislation to the Labour Party and the commitments on same contained in the Programme for Government, calls on the Executive Board to use its powers to convene a Special Delegate conference of the Labour Party, no later than two months after the commencement of the Dáil Summer Recess 2015, to debate the issue of Labour withdrawing from government if the legislation on employees’ rights to benefit from Collective Bargaining, which is envisaged in the Programme for Government has not been enacted by then.”Navan Road Branch, Dublin Central