The small business chamber, the GRTU, said working conditions being described as precarious would not improve if government increases red tape or making it difficult for the self-employed and small business owners to have access to the millions the government spends in contracts. If the small firms are denied sub-contracting work unemployment would rise.

The GRTU said that conditions of work should not be the responsibility of the tenders-issuing authority but of every head of government department or institution, and of every private employer, not just those contracted by the government. The responsibility that labour conditions are enforced lies with the Director of Employment, not with the Director of Contracts.

The government should understand that you get what you pay for. If they are to retain the system of paying the least, then conditions of work will never be among the best, the GRTU said.

It added that there is a large number of employees with public institutions who work as self-employed under precarious conditions when these public institutions know that these are not truly self-employed and that if the law, which applies only to the private sector, applied also to the public sector, the Director of Employment would call a halt.

The GRTU said it had expected the government to put a stop to precarious conditions of work and it was amazed that the abattoir, a government institution, just this month had called for applications for cleaners, on a self-employed basis, at very low rates of pay of €6.26 per hour, working from 11am to 7pm, including on Sundays and public holidays, and having to pay the 15 per cent social rate of contribution for the self-employed, and VAT of 18 per cent.

The GRTU said action is needed. They could not have all these declarations about precarious conditions of work with the government then exempting itself from the responsibilities it has. The solution has to be serious enforcement of the law, the right for everyone to take part in tendering for contracts, and payments without delay for government contracts.