Kathryn Reilly (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 104:

In page 488, between lines 26 and 27, to insert the following:"(5) Where a breach of employment law is committed by a body corporate or by a person acting on behalf of a body corporate and is proved to have been so committed with the consent, connivance or approval of, or to have been attributable to any neglect on the part of, a person who, when the breach was committed, was a director, manager, secretary or other similar officer of the body corporate or a person who was purporting to act in any such capacity, that person (as well as the body corporate) shall be liable to be proceeded against as if guilty of the breach committed by the body corporate.".

The first amendment seeks to insert a form of words to increase responsibility. It pretty much does what it says on the tin and holds people to account. This Bill offers us the opportunity to strengthen employee rights and ensure that individuals who have been mistreated have an opportunity to hold these companies to account for reasonable amounts of money in the wind-up process and elsewhere. While an approach to the court would be a very unwieldy and difficult activity for an individual to proceed with, the very fact that employees' rights are written in law would encourage most companies to take these rights more seriously. The law in its own right does serve as a guideline for the proper functioning of society. It would only be necessary to pursue the matter through the courts in a small minority of cases.
In respect of amendment No. 111, I know the total amount payable was already increased in the legislation but in reality, it would be very low and we could increase it. The figure of €40,000 that we provide is an example and is just above the average industrial wage.