A consultation initiated by NI Economy Minister, Conor Murphy aims to gather opinion from “the public, stakeholders and interested parties” on a range of employment rights with a view to enhancing the Employment Law framework and ensuring it is fit for purpose.
While the Workers Party welcomes measures to “enhance” workers’ rights, including the abolition of zero hours contracts and the removal of restrictions for trade unions, particularly in low paying sectors and the introduction of employment law changes that will help to improve terms of employment, pay and benefits, voice and representation and promote a healthy work-life balance, our Party is conscious of the context in which these changes take place.
The capitalist system, with the hypermobility of capital, creates precarious employment in the name of “flexibility” leading to further exploitation which is linked to processes of capital accumulation and increasing inequality.
While we are familiar with the rhetorical commitments of various administrations to improving the lot of workers, the reality has been reinvigorated attacks on trade unions and workers’ rights with the UK severely restricting these in 2016 and threatening further draconian measures in 2022.
It is within this framework that the Workers Party makes its submission to this consultation process.
