Labor campaigners have accused the Irish government of reneging on a commitment to protect migrant fishery workers by not introducing legislative amendments it had promised unions it would implement four years ago.
The accusations hit a boiling point in relation to a case that an Egyptian migrant fisher named Elamir Elmadkhoum brought forth regarding long working hours. In response to Elmadkhoum’s filing, Ireland’s High Court in May stated the country’s Labour Court does not have jurisdiction to hear complaints related to working time breaches affecting fishers. Similarly, Ireland’s key labor dispute resolution body – the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) – also issued a decision of “no jurisdiction.”
This has set a precedent that has led to other complaints from migrant fishers employed on Irish trawlers being slapped with a “no jurisdiction” decision.
The International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), which has been vocal about Irish government inaction in the past, is now helping Elmadkhoum seek a judicial review in his case.
Michael O’Brien, fisheries campaign lead for Ireland at the ITF, explained to SeafoodSource that his union received governmental promises in 2019 that migrant fishers would be able to take cases on labor abuses – such as working excessive hours – to Irish labor mediation bodies like the WRC.
Seemingly confirming this promise, the ITF reached a deal with the Irish government’s Department for Enterprise, Trade, and Employment in 2019 whereby the ministry would introduce legislation ensuring migrant fishers’ complaints would be covered under the country’s labor courts, like complaints from Irish workers would.
With that deal never reaching its intended conclusion and frustrations mounting, O’Brien said he is now hoping Elmadkhoum’s judicial review will finally force the government to act.
“We hope that this review will result in the government being told to correct its transposition of the E.U. directive and include explicit remedies at the WRC and Labour Court for fishers,” he said.
A spokesperson at the Department for Enterprise, Trade, and Employment deflected the blame O’Brien and others are trying to pin on the department, saying that another ministry is responsible for such issues.
“Enforcing compliance with rest periods and maximum working hours requirements in the fishing sector is the responsibility of authorized officers of the Department of Transport,” the spokesperson’s statement read. “As such, responsibility for the transposition of the directives rests with the Minister for Transport.”
Regardless of which department is responsible, according to ITF Secretary General Stephen Cotton, directly employed fishers remain the only private sector workers in Ireland who cannot have complaints of excessive working hours heard by the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC).
Government inaction on labor issues has led labor abuses to continue unchecked. The Northern Irish fleet, which includes many companies that also conduct business in the Republic of Ireland, was the focus of a major investigation published by the Financial Times this summer. The report suggested migrant laborers – who account for 70 percent of the staff aboard Northern Ireland trawlers – received inadequate compensation for injuries sustained at sea.
Unions representing fishers, like the ITF, want higher monetary penalties levied against fishing companies to discourage them from abusing workers. While the WRC has heard some cases, it has been unable to grant significant monetary awards that leave trawler owners on the hook for infractions.
In May, Cotton wrote to Minister for Enterprise, Trade, and Employment Simon Coveney stating that without any changes in legislation, any “adverse finding against fishing vessel owners will continue to be unaccompanied by awards for fishers that will be sufficiently dissuasive to affect a necessary culture change in a sector where repeat offending has become the norm.”
Cotton’s letter also highlighted how the ministry promised in January 2022 that “necessary amending legislation would be introduced by the spring of last year, but again, this deadline came and went with no action taken.” Coveney was not part of the ministry at that time.
Another issue facing fishers working in Ireland is that they are excluded from the Organisation of Working Time Act – a key Irish law enacted in 1997 that protects workers from excessive working hours. Instead, an E.U. directive covering working time for fishers was supposed to become Irish law at the time of the 2019 settlement agreement between the ITF and various government departments, but the parliamentary vote that is required to activate the change hasn’t occurred.
“Foot dragging [by the Irish government] over the last decade in ensuring migrant fishers have a secure permit status and decent and safe conditions of work shows us that the welfare of migrant workers in general is [of] low priority for them,” Teachta Dála Richard Boyd Barrett said. “It is particularly bad that migrant fishers who are forced to work [in] illegal and unsafe excessive hours cannot get any remedy from the WRC. The fact that this was acknowledged and a commitment was made to close this loophole in an agreement reached with the ITF by a number of government departments in 2019 but still not honored is a disgrace.”
Photo courtesy of Mick Harper/Shutterstock
