The Labour Relations Commission

national | worker & community struggles and protests | opinion/analysis Friday June 10, 2011 10:10 by Kerry Worker - Kerry Public Service Workers' Alliance

A Noxious Mix of the Malign and the Ineffectual

The Labour Relations Commission consists of Fianna Fáil hacks, failed union and government officials seeing out their golden years, employer hawks and old hands at the partnership game, capped by a Chair with links to child labour and sweatshops.

The Labour Relations Commission is now beset with an explosion of rights cases from workers claiming unfair treatment by their employers in one way or the other. Given the opportunist tack taken by employers following the economic collapse, this is probably not very surprising.

As the Irish economic crisis enters a new phase, bodies such as the LRC are being put under increased pressure. The mounting contradiction of forcing ordinary working and unemployed people to cover the extraordinary debts accumulated by the wealthy is continuing to cause crisis after crisis for the government. And the LRC has been key to greasing the wheels of this scandalous expropriation.

Even more insidiously, many of the members of the Commission play multiple roles, including as parties to high-profile disputes. The actions of the LRC then take on a much more political complexion and it is worth looking more closely at exactly who is on the Commission and how they got there. At the link below, the Kerry Public Service Workers' Alliance does just that and comes up with some uncomfortable findings.

The inescapable fact is that the Labour Relations Commission consists of Fianna Fáil hacks, failed union and government officials seeing out their golden years, employer hawks and old hands at the partnership game, capped by a Chair with links to child labour and sweatshops.