Written evidence from Northern Ireland
Public Service Alliance
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 NIPSA is the largest trade union in Northern
Ireland representing over 46,000 members employed across the public
service including the NI Civil Service and its Agencies, Local
Government, Education and Library Boards, the Health and Personal
Social Services, the NI Housing Executive as well as a host of
Non-Departmental Public Bodies (NDPBs). NIPSA also represents
a significant number of members in the voluntary and community
sector.
1.2 NIPSA has campaigned for a strong and inclusive
Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland since some of the most troubled
days of the conflict. We therefore welcome the Human Rights Commission's
(NIHRC) proposals for a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland and
especially the inclusion of socio-economic rights.
1.3 We therefore call on the Northern Ireland Affairs
Committee to fully endorse the inclusion of these rights to ensure
that the rights and needs of the most disadvantaged in our society
are not overlooked and that the human rights abuses of the past
never re-occur.
2. THE CASE
FOR INCLUSION
OF SOCIAL
AND ECONOMIC
RIGHTS IN
A BILL
OF RIGHTS
FOR NORTHERN
IRELAND
2.1 There is little doubt that Northern Ireland
has suffered particularly in economic and social terms as a result
of the Troubles over the last 30 years. An obvious way to tackle
these inequalities is explicitly to protect economic and social
rights in a Bill of Rights. Doing so would reflect a real commitment
on the part of Government to ridding Northern Ireland of the serious
socio-economic inequalities that have plagued it for so long.
2.2 For NIPSA's part enforceable social and economic
rights meet the criteria of being supplementary to the civil and
political rights already protected in the European Convention
on Human Rights (ECHR) and the Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA).
2.3 They also meet the "Particular Circumstances
of Northern Ireland" test. We understand that a Bill
of Rights which reflect the "particular circumstances"
of Northern Ireland implies a Bill that both deals with the legacy
of the past and looks to a fair and inclusive future for all our
citizens. The path to this future is a process in which all must
be included and in which all have a role to play. Work is part
of that process.
2.4 We need a society in which all workers are
free from discrimination, a society in which all can access opportunities
and win for themselves good jobs at a fair remuneration, a society
in which we can be both caring parents and productive workers.
The Bill of Rights ensures that fairness, inclusivity and prosperity
are everyones, by ensuring that trade unions are in a position
to represent those workers in the first place.
2.5 In Europe and across the globe trade union
rights are central to functioning democracies. Societies which
seek a healthy and well educated population, that seek to deliver
high quality public services, that provide more and better jobs
and who share a commitment to use prosperity to tackle disadvantage,
all have strong and modernising trade unions at their core. Workers
who are in trade unions are better paid and better treated than
those who are not. There are no exceptions, anywhere, to this
rule. Strong trade unions stabilise democracies and create societies
in which a commitment to fairness and inclusion is evidenced in
practice.
2.6 This is why trade union rights and social
and economic rights are a vital component in the Bill of Rights;
the workplace is where equality and fairness are tested, it is
where workers can secure for themselves the fairness and equal
treatment that is promised by all sections of civil society, state
and government.
2.7 We have a historic opportunity in Northern
Ireland to lead the way, to be a society in which social justice
and equality sit alongside prosperity and innovation.
2.8 The Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland
cannot be allowed to emerge as a weak and ineffectual covenant
that demeans and insults the people of Northern Ireland by denying
them their fundamental rights as the world looks on. No party
to the Bill of Rights process should have the right to define
alone, what is and what isn't a fundamental right of the citizens
of Northern Ireland.
2.9 If a Bill of Rights emerges without the
inclusion of social and economic and trade union rights then the
working people of Northern Ireland will continue to remain second
class bearers of minimal rights in a modern Europe. Northern Ireland
and its people want the normality of a modern, fair, inclusive
and prosperous Europe. The rights its working people seek are
consistent with the European social model.
2.10 This is evidenced by the widespread support
across both main communities for the inclusion of economic and
social rights in a Bill of Rights. In a survey carried out for
the NI Human Rights Commission in 2004, as many as 72% of respondents
in both main communities supported the inclusion of rights in
respect of health, housing, education and employment. In the history
of our divided society, there have been few issues that have united
people. The opportunity to adopt a Bill of Rights which will protect
human dignity and equality, and in doing so bring communities
together, should not be allowed to slip away amidst arguments
that these rights are too difficult to enforce. Countries such
as South Africa have been able to implement them and in doing
so help to create a better society.
2.11 In addition to this, rather than replacing
the role of MLAs and the Assembly as distributors of finite resources,
enforceable social and economic rights in a Bill of Rights could
potentially have a complementary role to play in the administration
of good governance, perhaps acting in the first instance as a
blueprint or road map for the rights that MLAs would have a responsibility
to protect in the course of their work.
3. CONSULTATION
3.1 The Government have already gave a clear
commitment to carrying out a public consultation. We would impress
upon the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee that the Government
respond to the Commission's advice in a comprehensive and urgent
fashion and ensure that proper time and resources are allocated
to ensure that people of Northern Ireland have the opportunity
to absorb and respond effectively to the consultation.
4. CONCLUSION
4.1 Social and economic rights remain firmly
at the heart of the Bill of Rights debate and at the centre of
what NIPSA and the 46,000 members it represents wishes to see
emerge from this process.
April 2009
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