Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank those who have made presentations. Mr. Kelly gave the figure of a €13 billion fall in household consumption from 2008 to 2012, which is massive. That hit the sectors SIPTU is focusing on, primarily retail services, and that figure of €13 billion has not been made since 2012. In that context, how can the loss be made up? What would they say to employers who say their hands are tied by that loss? The unions would say we have to look at other issues in the hotel and hospitality sector, such as loans and so on, but I would like to focus on that one issue.

Mr. Light commented that many employers are prepared to do the right thing by their employees and they have returned €30 million to the domestic economy through pay increases that the unions have negotiated. Will he explain what is the common denominator with regard to those employers? With regard to the employer whose name we are not allowed to mention, Mandate has a survey in December's Shopfloorwhich showed that 76% of staff in that organisation are, in the phrase Mr. Light uses, on "flexible contracts", and Mr. Kelly summed up what that means. Some 88% of them feel their hours were not fairly distributed and 85% said insecurity over hours and rostering is used as a method of control. That speaks to me of zero-hour contracts being, as I described them previously, like the situation of the navvies in England. What work are the unions doing around that to bring a degree of fairness or to get to the fair and decent workplace? I put that question to the three witnesses as they all deal with that area.

To conclude, I point out that the cost of employers' PRSI contributions was doubled overnight on 1 January 2013, or perhaps 2014, as part of a jobs initiative. Many employers were not even given that information until they got their wages bills in that first year, yet many of them just took it on board.