Workers’ Rights – Unite for a Real Alternative

“We should ensure that health and safety measures in all workplaces
take account of our mental health”

Ciaran Moore: Both the Dáil and Westminster are currently examining laws to deal with Online Safety, and examining ways to regulate the internet companies which have such a huge impact on our lives. Yet the debates in both parliaments miss out on a key issue – the workers who help make the internet safer.

Facebook whistleblowers have given evidence on the known impact of the company’s products both on our democracies and on the mental health of users, in particular young people. It is important that the regulation in Ireland and the UK doesn’t merely identify content which is harmful, but also the practices of companies such as Facebook, Google or TikTok in designing algorithms that put content onto our phones and computers which can cause harm – whether it is cyberbullying, suicide or self-harm promotion. This is a complex area where rights to expression and freedom of speech need to be balanced against the impact of large amounts of distressing content delivered to vulnerable people. But some of the most vulnerable people in our communities need more support than is there at present, and the establishment of an Online Safety Commissioner is an important and welcome step.

Brendan Ogle: I have decided to write this article at this juncture for a number of reasons.

* Firstly, insofar as Irish workers can rely on any meaningful legislative support to protect their collective rights as workers those supports have crumbled into virtual non-existence

* Secondly, we have just had imposed upon us yet another Government that not a single person in the state voted for, with a programme for Government that fails absolutely to provide one iota of additional support for such workers, or even to acknowledge a problem

* And finally, in this neoliberal era the levels of inequality between labour and capital is now so extreme, and the resultant deprivation in a world and nation of such riches so acute, that the Trade Union movement of workers must now fundamentally change approach and take affirmative actions, or stand accused of simply existing to enable our class oppressors continue to trample on working people in the pursuit of extreme greed.

Continue reading “Workers’ Rights Have Crumbled Into Virtual Non-Existence”

About Unite for a Real Alternative

Unite Trade Union will produce a political blog/commentary which will be regularly updated and published on our social media and related platforms in the Republic of Ireland. Blog posts can be emailed to you on application. In the neoliberal era Unite believe it is critical that modern Trade Unionism fights for members and their communities inside, and outside, the workplace. The factors that impact on our members lives do not stop when they leave work, or end at what used to be referred to as ‘the factory gate’. Most posts are written by Brendan Ogle, Unite’s Senior Officer in the Republic of Ireland.