Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for introducing the Bill. It is a very useful important and useful Bill. The Deputy says, and I agree with him, that it is quite simple. Keeping it simple is important because I note from the IBEC submission that it is trying to surround it in a lot of complexity so as to suggest that it will be a hard thing to achieve.

It is interesting to think about how the workplace and work practices have changed. In the 1800s when kids were sent up chimneys, employers complained when the trade unions tried to end the abuse of child labour in factories. Employers, therefore, are always going to complain about changes to working hours for workers, regardless of their age or personal circumstances. I think it has been outlined - it is true - that pushing workers into precarious if-and-when or zero-hour contracts deprives them of any hope of a decent life. They will not be able to take out a loan and know when to arrange child care. It can cause an enormous amount of stress. There are some occupations - this will come up in the context of Bus Éireann - where one has to have what is called a spare cohort of staff in order that if somebody dies during the night or someone cannot make it in to work, there will be staff who can be relied on to fill in where essential services need to be provided, including ambulance, nursing and transport services, etc. The industries in which such practices are followed are probably the weakest in terms of union organisation and clearly the ones in which workers are most vulnerable. In the accommodation sector and hostelries, etc. there is a very high number of women who are generally not unionised or organised. When we looks at the figures for these sectors we see there was a huge increase in profits following the crash to 2014 but an even sharper increase between 2014 and 2017. During the same period the use of if-and-when and zero-hour contracts went from a figure 2% to a magnificent 10% of the workforce. It is the same old mantra - employers never waste a good crisis. I contend that in arguing against Deputy David Cullinane's Bill the employers are not just saying, "We had to deal with a crisis;" rather they want to make them a permanent feature of the workforce and become quite defensive in trying to stop any interference. Is there any place for tackling not just if-and-when contracts but companies such as Deliveroo which offer bogus self-employment and which state, "You are not an employee, but these are your hours?" One then has to scrap and compete with others to be able to work them. That is an issue we should be taking on also.