Defending Equality
8 Jul 2009
Margaret Browne, President, IBOA The Finance Union, addressing the Biennial Delegate Conference of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions
Delegates,
After the loss of jobs and incomes, one of the first casualties of the recession is likely to be compliance with employment standards. And at the heart of many of the employment standards established in recent years is the principle of equality which has been promoted unambiguously by this movement. There is a real danger that many of the gains which were secured from employers and Government may now be eroded as senior managers offer workers a choice between a job on their terms or no job at all.
I think we have all encountered managements who were less than enthusiastic about the equality agenda. They adopted a minimalist approach to the cost of compliance rather than recognising the opportunity for mutual gain by transforming the work environment.
Some became a little more "equality-conscious" during the height of the economic boom - when a tightening labour market prompted them to attract married women back into the labour force.
And while, of course, we took advantage of this situation to secure enhanced equality policies, many of us knew that we were not witnessing a Damascus-Road conversion by management - but simply employers trying to make a virtue out of a necessity.
Of course some managements have gone further for equality - but these have been the exception rather than the rule. And there is now a real danger that the better employers - from an equality perspective - will feel come pressure from their competitors to claw back on work-life balance provisions - while those who never embraced the equality agenda in the first place will use the recession to justify their regressive attittudes.
In another time, we in the Republic might have expected the State authorities to exert moral pressure, at least, on backsliding bosses. But the Coalition Government in Ireland has given an unambiguous signal to bad employers that a blind eye will be turned - by its savage cut in funding for the Equality Authority in last autumn's Budget.
These cuts have so undermined the Authority that the Chief Executive, Niall Crowley, has resigned. The ICTU nominees on the Board of the Authority also resigned - while to their credit the two IBEC nominees did the same. However, IBEC has since replaced them. Niall Crowley has been replaced with a career civil servant. And while I mean no disrespect to my colleagues in the AHCS, I believe that an important factor in the Government's choice of replacement is the belief that the new Chief Executive will be more amenable to Government priorities.
In case anyone doubted the Government's attitude, the muzzling of the Equality Authority has been accompanied by the demise of the Combat Poverty Agency - which finally closed its doors last week. The National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism was also wiped. The Human Rights Commission was also a target - and would have been rationalised out of existence if it had not been established by an international treaty, the Good Friday Agreement.
The dismantling of the Republic's equality framework under the guise of budgetary necessity contrasts sharply with the approach taken by the British Government - and in particular Labour's Deputy Leader, Harriet Harman, who recently launched a new equality initiative - which as well as attempting to push out the boundaries of equality further in certain areas, also reminded employers of their obligation to treat all their employees fairly and warned them against using the recession as an excuse to abandon the principles of equal treatment.
In the current climate, Ms. Harman's initiative is highly significant - and gives a clear direction on an issue of importance to men as well as women.
It underlines the fundamental point that the protection of workers' rights is not a luxury item that can only be afforded during the boom times. Indeed, some Irish Government Ministers believed it could not even be afforded then. The now former leader of the now former Progressive Democrat party - who was at the time Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform - remarked that: "a dynamic liberal economy like ours demands flexibility and inequality in some respects to function. It is such inequality which provides incentives."
Even though the current Government in the Republic seems to have embraced the McDowell spirit with a vengeance, more enlightened people understand that it is during the downturn that these protections matter most - since the potential for gross exploitation is at its greatest.
Work-life balance issues are also more relevant during recessionary periods because the pressures on family life are rarely more acute. Rowing back on these entitlements for men and women is not merely a matter of inconvenience for those affected: it is also a source of severe disruption and stress with the most profound implications for future generations.
It is opportunistic, unjust and short-sighted in the extreme. Economic recovery cannot be built around policies of 'slash and burn.' It will take hard work, skill and commitment to restore the health of the economy. Any measure which prevents workers from delivering these vital elements is, therefore, ultimately self-defeating.
