The country’s largest public service trade union has urged the Government to consider a Canadian system which would require workers who benefit from salary deals or other collective agreements to pay dues or subscriptions even if they are not members.
Fórsa has told a Government-established consultation process that “free-riding” is a growing problem for trade unions.
At present just over a quarter of all workers in Ireland are members of trade unions, a substantial portion of them in the public sector, who benefit from union-negotiated deals.
But in a significant number of cases employees who are not union members benefit equally from pay increases or other negotiations carried out by unions on behalf of their members in the same company or organisation.
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Research by John Geary and Maria Belizon at UCD has suggested more than a third of workers in unionised workplaces could be categorised as “free-riders”, with the figure running to more than half in unionised private sector places of employment.
In a submission to a public consultation process on the formulation of an action plan due to be drawn up later this year by Government to promote greater collective bargaining coverage, Fórsa said there was a strong relationship between trade union membership and union-negotiated collective agreements. It argued “free-riding” was a growing problem for trade unions.
This, it said, was primarily because of the associated costs of union organising and the financial loss incurred from non-members benefiting from improved pay and conditions without contributing to the collective effort through membership subscription fees or participating in collective industrial action.
“To help address the issue of ‘free-riders’ and declining density, and to build and strengthen the capacity of trade unions through incentivising membership, Fórsa recommends the Government consider proposals to allow unions to collect subscription fees or union dues from all employees, including members and non-members, similar to the Rand Formula which exists in Canada.”
As part of its submission on the action plan, which is required of the Government under the terms of Adequate Minimum Wages Directive, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu) made 35 recommendations.
Congress, which represents more than 40 affiliated trade unions, has been involved in a sustained campaign to influence the way Government implements the directive and has been critical of what it sees as a lack of action taken so far.
In its submission, it calls for a range of measures including access to private sector workplaces for unions, protections where industrial action is taken and making a willingness to engage with unions a requirement for access to State supports.
Ictu also argues that the Government should consider allowing State-subsidised but voluntary unemployment insurance which the unions would administer. They point to similar schemes already operating in Denmark, Sweden and Norway, where they have helped to sustain significantly higher level of union membership.
Under the system, the schemes provide for additional payments which complement existing social protection measures for union members who lose their jobs. Ictu says introducing such a system in Ireland would be “a major undertaking” but wants to see its viability examined.
It also suggests a trial of default union membership at a semistate enterprise or other organisation receiving substantial public funding.
Among the proposals from trade union Unite, meanwhile, is for the universal right to union recognition to be enshrined in a workers’ rights act, with employers that contravened its terms prohibited from tendering for any public contracts.
