Labour Comment Editorial:—March 2006

Could Poland Take Over Ireland?

The leader of the Labour Party, Pat Rabbitte has called for consideration of a "Green Card" system for Immigrants. Fine. The big question is: If in government, would the Labour Party have the political will and mettle to apply its principle?

"The time may be coming when we will have to sit down and examine whether we would have to look at whether a work permits regime ought to be implemented in terms of some of this non-national labour, even for countries in the European Union," he said (3.1.2006).

The 'thinking-out loud' might have passed off, on the part of all the other main parties and the media, were it not for the poll in the Irish Times a couple of weeks later on 23rd January 2006.

Pat Rabbitte's personal rating jumped by four per cent. And Labour Party support by two per cent.

A large majority in the Irish Times poll wanted to reintroduce work permits for workers from the new EU member states, and a similar majority believed there are already enough or too many foreign workers here. However, most voters see the presence of foreign workers here as good for the Irish economy and society.

The Irish Times tns/MRBI research shows that just 17% of people believe that the status quo should remain, whereby workers from the 10 Accession States aren't subject to any restrictions and can freely apply for employment upon arrival in Ireland.

Seventy-eight per cent of respondents said they believed that immigrants from the newer EU States should be obliged to apply for work permits before they could seek employment here.

Five per cent said they had no opinion.

Reacting to The Irish Times poll results, Labour leader Pat Rabbitte said the results showed that there was "a sophisticated response" to the issue of migration, in that a majority of respondents believed it had been good for the Irish economy and society but at the same time were concerned about job displacement.

A spokesman for Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said that while the party was not in favour of a Work Permit system for new EU countries at present, it welcomed the debate on the issue that had been sparked by Mr. Rabbitte.

Mr. Rabbitte also accused Government TDs of doing a "U-turn" on the issue of migration, as they had strongly criticised his comments three weeks ago when he called for a debate on the issue.

Trade Union Support

Following his "Green Card" statement, the only support the Labour leader received was from the President of SIPTU, Jack O'Connor. The Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, rallied in behind his Protestant counterpart, Archbishop John Neill, stating that Ireland needs an "open migration policy".

Mark Field, Chief Executive of ISME, the Small and Medium Enterprise body stated that Mr. Rabbitte was
"rattling a sabre that doesn't need to be rattled. He said there was no need for a reassessment of immigrant policy here. The market would regulate itself and, he claimed Irish employers were 'screaming out' for more workers to maintain economic growth" (Irish Independent, 4.1.2006).

"You are hopping Mad Rabbitte", quoted the Irish Daily Star in banner headlines. They had Dr. Sean Barrett, a Trinity Economics boffin describe the Labour leaders remarks as "crazy".

"We need to continue outsourcing lower-skilled jobs and moving up the value chain", the TCD economist said.

"We've outsourced things like shirts, socks and shoes already. The tourism, meat processing and building sectors would scarcely exist without input from workers from places like Brazil and Poland", Professor Barrett said (The Star, 4.1.2006).

In its leading article The Star says Rabbitte "is trying his best to be all things to all men on this issue" (4.1.2006).

The Labour Party leader has only himself to blame for this! That the political establishment has only belatedly woken up to the folly of its decision to allow full admission from the 10 Accession countries does not bring much credit to the body politic.

What did the Man say?

"Labour leader Pat Rabbitte has called for a reassessment of immigration policy in the light of the Irish Ferries dispute and evidence of the displacement of Irish workers in a range of industries, writes Stephen Collins, Political Correspondent.

"The time may be coming when we will have to sit down and examine whether we would have to look at whether a work permits regime ought to be implemented in terms of some of this non-national labour, even for countries in the European Union," he said.

"In an interview with The Irish Times, Mr Rabbitte said that unless basic standards for workers were established across the EU, Irish jobs would be threatened.

"The Labour leader also said that there would be no coalition with Fianna Fáil under his leadership.

"On immigration, Mr Rabbitte said that the recent dispute at Irish Ferries had raised serious questions, particularly as the Government had been blocking the directive on agency workers in Europe and had also been blocking the maritime directive.

"If the EU services directive goes ahead you can establish a company in Poland or Latvia and come over here on contract and do an Irish Ferries. You get an agency to employ the workers here at domestic rates in Poland or Latvia. It is a big issue."

Mr. Rabbitte said it was nonsense to argue, as IBEC and the Taoiseach had done during the Irish Ferries dispute, that the practice was confined to maritime industries.

"That is manifestly not the case. Displacement is going on in the meat factories and it is going on in the hospitality industry and it is going on in the building industry.

"What Irish Ferries has done has lanced the boil and we need to know more about the numbers coming here, the kind of work they are engaged in, the displacement effect, if any, on other sectors.

"We need to look at that because there is anecdotal evidence about it happening in construction, and happening in meat factories and happening in the hospitality industry."

"Mr Rabbitte said that for the very same reasons Tánaiste Mary Harney invited Gama to come to Ireland, he did not expect there would be any outcry from IBEC about the situation because it was contributing to wage moderation.

"We can't compete now in the traditional type industries. The rate of attrition in terms of job losses has been far higher than we have acknowledged. It has been concealed by the scale of the boom. There are many positive spin-offs from the diversity of labour here now, but to say that that should for all time go unregulated I think has been thrown into question by the Irish Ferries dispute.

"There are 40 million or so Poles after all, so it is an issue we have to have a look at" (The Irish Times, 3.1.2006).

"While it was curious that Pat Rabbitte recently talked of immigration causing 'displacement' at a time of full employment, he was right to call for closer study of what is going on. Currently, data on the impact of immigration on the labour market are not being gathered" (Dan O'Brien, Senior Editor Economist Intelligence Unit in London, Irish Times, 10.1.2006).

 

Trade Union support

Jack O'Connor, the President of SIPTU, welcomed Mr. Rabbitte's comments, which he described as "helpful" and "timely".

It was his understanding that what Mr. Rabbitte was saying was that the labour market had to be properly regulated and standards had to be enforced, otherwise immigration would need to be dealt with differently.

It had always been the position of Trade Unions that, once the labour market was opened to workers from the new EU member states, radical changes were needed to the regulations currently in place.

"I think what Pat Rabbitte is saying is very similar to what we've been saying" (The Irish Times, 4.1.2006)

Catholic Church Position

The Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, Dr. Diarmuid Martin, has opposed the introduction of a Work Permits system for EU citizens working in Ireland. "Borders should be open. It's what the entire EU exercise is about", he stated.
Speaking at the Pro-Cathedral Dublin following a "Festival of Peoples" Mass on 5th January 2006, he said:

"We need workers. We need managed migration, but people are not just economic units. They may realise their dignity through work, but that dignity doesn't evaporate when they have no work" (Irish Times, 6.1.2006).

He was responding to a query from The Irish Times as to his response to comments by Labour leader Pat Rabbitte earlier this week on immigration policy.

"Managed migration", Archbishop Martin! Surely this amounts to much the same as the Labour Party leader is suggesting? We wonder if such enthusiasm would be so evident if the 40 million Poles were Moslems?

Government Response

Minister for Employment Micheál Martin rejected the Labour leader's views, while a spokesman for the Progressive Democrats accused him of "pandering to the scaremongers".

Mr. Martin said the Government had no plans to look again at its decision to allow workers from the 10 new EU states to come to this country without having to go through a Work-Permit system.

He said Forfás and the Skills Expert Group had recommended that the country should have an inflow of 50,000 workers a year to keep the economy growing in a healthy fashion.

"Pat Rabbitte's views run counter to the position adopted by his party in the Dáil during a recent debate on work permits when the Government was accused of having too restrictive a policy on immigration."

The Progressive Democrats

A spokesman for the PDs rejected the claim by Mr. Rabbitte that the proposed EU Services Directive would undermine the rights of Irish workers. He said the Directive would fully respect minimum wage rates and the health and safety standards of the host country.

"The real question is whether the Labour Party has finally been flushed out as posturing as internationalist apostles of migration while bitterly opposing any economic measure which would give migrant workers from other EU states the same rights and opportunities that Irish migrant workers have enjoyed across the EU for so long."

Michael McDowell, in Vienna for a meeting of EU Justice Ministers, criticised the Labour leader's views on immigration, claiming Mr. Rabbitte had also been opposed to workers from Poland escaping Communist rule when he was in the Workers' Party in the 1980s.

"He said Ireland needed to take a realistic approach to migration from the 10 new member states in the EU rather than throw obstacles in their way" (The Irish Times, 16.1.2006).

Peter Sutherland

However, by far the most pertinent response to the Immigration debate is the utterances of "Mr. Globalisation" himself, Peter Sutherland:

"If the big issue of the 1990s was globalisation of goods and services, the aspect of this which has not been taken on is the issue of migration", Mr.Sutherland said (The Irish Times 24.1.2006).

Having freed the Dollar, Yen and Euro: humankind must now be released from all bonds, borders and regulations to pursue their eternal wealth.

Sutherland, himself a former EU commissioner and newly-appointed UN Special Representative on Migration, has criticised the "negativity" surrounding the immigration debate in Ireland, claiming the growth of the Irish economy had been significantly driven by immigration.

His appointment to head a UN review of global migration is akin to appointing Nick Leeson as Governor of the Central Bank. Is it any wonder the UN is in such a mess?

"That's why it is depressing to see people regard this as a negative, even in economic terms," he told The Irish Times. "There is no doubt it is a positive in moral terms to adopt a generous approach to immigration, especially given that we have been the beneficiaries of the generosity of others over many decades."

Mr. Sutherland said the problems many European countries and Japan experienced in expanding their economies were due to a poor demography and suggested there should be a "conjuncture of interests" between developed countries and migrant workers from the developing world. He described international migration as "the biggest issue of our time".

Migrant Workers From Other Countries
Spain: 24,659
France: 20,322
China: 19,288
Nigeria: 16,888
Germany: 12,887
U.S.A.: 12,808

Immigration: A Brief History

Certainly, Immigration was a major influence in the development and prosperity of the United States, Canada, and Australia but that was a process that was controlled throughout. There is a naivety in the Irish debate bordering on the infantile: that we open the gates and welcome all in without restriction. "Borders should be open", is the way the Archbishop of Dublin puts it.

Billy Curtin, the Secretary of the Cork Building Group of Unions, would put it a very different way. (See Below). But workers, unlike Archbishops have to survive in the real world, whether in Poland or in Ireland.

"There are 40 million or so Poles", says Rabbitte. In all, there are 70 million people in the 1st May 2004 Accession Countries who have an unrestricted right to travel to Ireland, U.K. and Sweden. Bulgaria and Romania are knocking on the door, with their population of 31 million.

At what stage do you draw the line? There are 10,000 Poles in Cork city and County; 1,000 in Dungarvan; Letterkenny and its hinterland has 1,100. There's at least 40,000 Poles in Dublin. Around Rush in Co. Dublin, 2,000 Latvians have made their abode. The truth is that officially the State is not even keeping a count.

A Left Position on Immigration

"There is no 'White New Zealand' policy or 'White Canada' policy, and no one hears of those countries being overrun by Asiatics. Both New Zealand and Canada regulate immigration without using terms that are insulting to the enslaved peoples… We could no more permit (mass immigration from Asia) than from Europe, or from Britain for that matter, and for the same reason—it would endanger living standards and create unemployment, and would, therefore, favour the efforts of reactionary elements to promote political and racial division among the people.

"Mass immigration from low-wage countries in particular must be avoided. Hence the importance of the immigration quota system advocated by the Communist party, as a means to effectively control the flow of immigrants from all countries in accordance with the economic conditions prevailing here in Australia" (Marxist Glossary by L. Harry Gould, Current Books,Communist Party of Australia, Sydney, 1947).

Australia's "white Australia" policy, officially termed the "restrictive immigration policy", though somewhat liberalised after 1965 to permit the entry of some non-Europeans, remains perhaps the most noted current example of the exclusion of coloured peoples.

United States

With the oncoming Depression, the US introduced legislation restricting immigration, reversing traditional American policy and stemming the flow from Europe. In 1920, the year before enactment of emergency legislation, 800,000 immigrants had arrived. Added to the protests of organised labour, were the objections of business leaders, and patriotic organisations which feared that some of the immigrants might be radicals.(sic.)

"Legislation in 1924 set small quotas totalling 164,000 people yearly; it favoured immigrants from north-western Europe and outraged the Japanese by banning all immigration from East Asia. Immigration from within the Western Hemisphere continued—900,000 Canadians (mostly French-speaking) and 500,000 Mexicans entered the United States during the 1920s" (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1978, Volume 18-p.988).

The main host countries of immigration after World War II were Australia, New Zealand, the U.S., Canada, Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, and Uruguay. Highest rates of net inflow existed in Australia and New Zealand; immigration was responsible for two-fifths of the increase of population in Australia.

Migrants in the Americas were absorbed most readily by Canada and Venezuela, though in absolute numbers the US still took by far the largest total. Jamaica lost nearly a quarter of its natural increase through emigration, a situation not unlike the Ireland of the late Forties and Fifties, while Mexico had a net outflow of 250,000 (mainly to the U.S.), which however was only three per cent of the natural increase.

The number of Irish-born in Britain in 1961, even allowing for deaths and re-emigration was over one million.

The population of the 26 Counties for 1961 was 2,818,341.

One of the striking developments after 1945 was the influx of European and Indian populations into certain parts of Africa. In the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland (later Rhodesia, Zambia, and Malawi) the number of Europeans increased from 105,000 to 274,000 between 1946 and 1957, and more than two-thirds of this was due to immigration.

In a world in which the volume and direction of migration have been heavily influenced by restrictions unfavourable to coloured peoples, however, some channels remained open as shown by the immigration of Puerto Ricans to the US, and, until passage of the restrictive Commonwealth Immigration Bill in 1968, of West Indians to the UK. In these cases the fact of common citizenship made possible a relatively large increase in the movement of coloured migrants into these countries.

Make Your Mind Up Time!

Ireland has a three-month deadline to consider imposing a clampdown on workers arriving here from Eastern Europe.

Unless the Government applies to reintroduce some form of special controls by the end of April, it cannot impose Work Permits on anyone coming here from the 10 new Member-States, the European Commission has insisted.

"Any changes to arrangements proposed by a member state must be communicated to the Commission before April 30, 2006," the Commission's social affairs spokeswoman said.

"The Commission wasn't able to give a clear answer yesterday about whether Ireland could impose new restrictions, since the labour market has already been liberalised. It said that any plans to do so would have to be reviewed on a 'case by case' basis" (Irish Independent, 24.1.2006).

Under the current rules, Ireland would have to prove that the labour market had been affected by the arrival of the new immigrants—although with unemployment stable and low, this might be hard to prove.

The Commission also admits that it doesn't anticipate any rolling back on the current system.

It is not anticipated that any of the three countries who did not impose transitional arrangements, Ireland, UK, and Sweden, will request the imposition of new restrictions. If that does occur, the Commission will treat each request on a case-by-case basis, on the analysis of the justification provided for this request.

Controls

Any move by Ireland to impose controls would also be a major blow to the Commission's efforts to have other countries follow Ireland's example.

At the moment, just three of the 15 old member states, Ireland, Britain, and Sweden, impose no restrictions. Ireland must still decide whether to open up to both Romania and Bulgaria, who are set to join the EU in less than a year's time.

It is expected that just three countries, Finland, Spain and Portugal, might relax their current restrictions on May 1st next—the second anniversary of enlargement.

But the majority of other EU states, including Germany, Italy, France and Austria, will opt instead to extend current restrictions voluntarily for up to three years. Austria and Germany have strongly hinted that they will try and impose an extra two-year delay, preventing the free movement of workers from Eastern Europe until May, 2011.

Since around 180,000 PPS numbers have already been issued to workers from the new Member States, it could also prove difficult in practice to introduce controls.

Unions demand 'level playing field' on wages

Unions will demand a crack-down today on rogue developers who are flouting agreed industry pay rates by paying foreign workers as little as €8 an hour.The Cork Building Group of Unions, an umbrella group representing 20,000 electricians, plumbers, carpenters and plasters across Munster, said the pay abuse is keeping hundreds of Irish labourers out of work.

They have gathered evidence, including wage slips, which show the abuse is wide-spread, union secretary Billy Curtin said.

Mr. Curtin, who is also secretary of the Plasterers' Union, said he knows of 300 Irish plasterers who can't get work because foreign workers are willing to work for almost half the agreed €16.87 Construction Industry Federation rate.

The Unions will present Enterprise Minister Micheál Martin with their evidence in Cork today.
They will demand developers found flouting the agreed rates be hauled before the Labour Court and prosecuted if necessary.

"I know of one site where there are 300 Eastern European staff being paid €8 an hour", Mr. Curtin said.

Unions' Seek Work Permit System

Mr. Curtin claimed some developers are telling Irish labourers they are not hiring Irish staff because foreign workers will work for less.

"We will tell the Minister: "This is your own city and you're the Minister for Employment. Can you tell all the Irish lads that they can't get work"", Mr. Curtin said.

"We have no problem with foreign lads coming in to work here. But they are working at low prices.

"There has to be a level playing field"  (Irish Examiner, 3.2.2006).

Entry to Old Europe

The only three original EU states to completely remove barriers to labour movement are Sweden, Ireland, and Britain, although the last makes workers from eight of the new member states register with the Home Office within 30 days of starting work.

But, with unemployment averaging 8.5 per cent in the EU, and close to 10 per cent in both France and Germany, the prospects of many Governments removing restrictions are low.

Only Finland has so far said that it is considering relaxing its policy towards the new Member States this May, in line with the Commission's wishes.

"It is very likely that Finland will open its labour market and both the prime minister and the labour minister have indicated they are in favour," said a Finnish Government spokesman based in Brussels. But a final decision will only be made following consultations with parliament, unions and employment organisations, he said.

The Commission is deeply opposed to the current swathe of restrictions imposed on the citizens of new Member States who want to travel to the original EU15 to work.

"The EU is based on the idea of the free movement of labour, goods, services and capital within the common market," commission President José Manuel Barroso told an audience in the Czech capital Prague recently.

"From the very beginning the EU has been striving to have the transition period cancelled . . . I am personally convinced that transition periods are not beneficial for the EU."

Unsurprisingly, new Member States have reacted badly to the restrictions, which can continue for up to seven years under transition arrangements in the Accession Treaty. Poland, Slovenia, and Hungary have even imposed their own reciprocal restrictions on citizens of the EU15 living and working on their territory.

The exact restrictions imposed by EU Member States on the movement of labour vary. For example, Denmark issues Work Permits to nationals from eight of the States that joined the EU on 1st May 2004, excluding Malta or Cyprus, on condition that their work is full-time and governed by a collective labour agreement.

There is no need to satisfy a labour market test, but applicants must also be granted a Residence Permit before taking up a job.

The Netherlands has adopted a two-fold procedure—a traditional full Work-Permit system, including a labour market test, applies for most sectors, but a number of sectors and occupations are exempt from this procedure.
France has decided to maintain a Work Permit system but not, for example, for work in the research sector.

Belgium, Finland, Greece, Luxembourg and Spain have also decided to maintain a traditional Work-Permit system. Italy has kept its Work-Permit system, but issued an entry quota for workers from the eight Member States in question. Legislation in Portugal also provides for a quota system.

Germany and Austria, two countries with some of the biggest concerns about migration, have Work-Permit systems.

Both States are also making use of a provision set out in the Accession Treaties, which enables them to apply restrictions for cross-border services in sensitive sectors, involving the temporary movement of workers.
This mishmash of different rules and regulations may run contrary to the guiding principle of the EU single market. However, even in States with low unemployment, such as the Netherlands, there seems little appetite to remove barriers.

"We haven't taken any decision yet," said one Dutch diplomat, who stresses that investigations into the issue will begin in earnest later in the year.

But he conceded that last year's vote against the EU Constitution, which was largely driven by fears of migration, and upcoming local elections mean it is likely the Netherlands will seek an extension to the labour market restrictions in April. One thing is clear: few EU States look set to follow Ireland, Britain and Sweden come April 30th.

Government Jitters

But it has emerged the Government is likely to change its policy on migrant workers from countries joining the EU in the future.

A strong hint of adopting new work rules for migrants from Bulgaria and Romania when they join up next January was given on 24th January 2006 by Justice Minister, Michael McDowell.

He said he did not think anybody was really suggesting that the people who were now working in our economy should be sent home or required to go through a lengthy administrative process.

But the Government had discussed the issues that arose from further expansion of the EU, he added.

"The Government is well aware of the issues at play here and has decided, for instance in relation to Bulgaria and Romania, it is not necessarily going to follow the same path that it has adopted in relation to the 10 member states that joined on May 1, 2004," he said.

A Hawk in the Holly

Mr. Ned O'Keeffe, F.F. (Cork East), said he was in favour of "some restrictions" for foreign workers employed in Ireland. He added: "This will be a difficult year for Irish employees." Mr. O'Keeffe said :

"You have to look after the natives" when it comes to employment in Ireland." He added : "I am concerned about my Irish electorate and my people in East Cork so we have to protect their jobs and security of employment and that there'll be jobs in the future for them."

PD Senator Tom Morrissey said he was "alarmed" to hear Mr. O'Keeffe's comments and said that "backing the Labour Party proposal on work permits would be a regressive step".

"Ireland is now an open, outward-looking and competitive country. Introducing restrictions on the employment rights of non-nationals from other EU countries would be an entirely retrograde development at this stage," he said.

Labour Party clarifies its stance on migration

"The Labour Party yesterday set in stone its controversial stance on migration with a policy document calling for restricted access to the Irish labour market for accession workers if necessary.

"Rather than an employment free-for-all, the Labour Party wants to defend standards and prevent employers bringing in workers at below the going rate.

"Labour leader Pat Rabbitte said the dispute involving Turkish Gama workers and the Irish Ferries strike were not unique in Ireland and there was anecdotal evidence of exploitation across the country.

"Launching the document in Dublin yesterday, Mr. Rabbitte was careful to welcome all the benefits that migrant workers bring.

"But if it is found that Irish jobs are being undermined to any great degree through the continued exploitation of migrant workers, Labour would consider restricting access even to accession workers from the enlarged EU through a green card system.

"The policy also called for measures to tackle bogus subcontracting and for more and better-resourced labour inspectors" (Irish Examiner, 20.1.2006)

Go To Secure Sales Area

ATHOL BOOKS HOMEPAGE

Past Labour Comment Editorials