SHOP STEWARD
| IRELAND |
| SHOP STEWARD |
The term "shop steward" has similar origins to shop floor , above, referring to the area of the factory where production is carried out. Shop stewards are lay officials of trade unions , workplace representatives elected by members. Shop stewards are thus not employees of the union; while they are officials of the union, they are employees of the organisation and still perform duties as an employee (except in rare cases where stewards may have 100 per cent. facility time and thus be fulltime stewards). Although the term has its origins in manufacturing industry and with craft workers, "shop steward" is commonly used to describe workplace representatives in other areas of work, including clerical and administrative employment. Shop stewards are responsible for negotiation in such areas as disciplinary, grievance and disputes procedures and bargaining on behalf of their members in respect of pay and conditions. However, workplace representatives in Ireland do not carry out the range of bargaining activities to the extent of their British counterparts, since there appears to be a greater dependence on full-time officials for bargaining. Secondly, with Ireland's system of national pay bargaining the scope for local bargaining over pay is not as wide is in Britain.
The Labour Relations Commission has issued a draft Code of Practice on worker representatives, "Duties and Responsibilities of Employee Representatives and the Protection of Facilities to be afforded them by their Employer", which outlines the duties and responsibilities of stewards. The steward's role, according to the draft, includes representing members fairly and effectively, conforming to the same job performance standards and rules as other employees, and preventing unofficial industrial action . Other areas of responsibility include negotiation, participation in grievance procedures, and receiving training from the trade union. The draft Code also covers facilities for trade union representatives , in terms of reasonable facilities to carry out the role, with time off in which to do so, and time off to attend trade union training courses. The sort of facilities which may be provided include use of office equipment such as a telephone, mail system and photocopier, as well as office space in which to work.
Please note: the European industrial relations glossaries were compiled between 1991 and 2003 and are not updated. For current material see the European industrial relations dictionary.