Professor James Wickham:

I thank the joint committee for the invitation to address it on the Bill. By way of background, I note that TASC, of which I am the director, is an independent think tank carrying out research and policy analysis. Dr. Alicja Bobek and I produced a report last year, Enforced Flexibility? Working in Ireland Today, which included a study of the hospitality sector. My statement bears almost entirely on that sector because that is where we claim to have some knowledge. I will be addressing the questions put by the committee.

The first issue I was asked to address involves the problems caused by the increased casualisation of work. We keep talking in this context of zero-hour contracts, but strictly speaking there is no such thing in Ireland in the common-sense use of the term. Under a zero-hour contract as understood in the UK, one is offered work and one takes it but if one is not offered work one does not take it and does not get any pay. However, the employee pledges himself or herself to take the work. That is illegal in Ireland under the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997 which obliges the employer to provide some compensation to employees who are required to be available for work but then not actually utilised. Our research indicates that this is widely ignored because of the widespread use of if-and-when and hybrid contracts.

When employers impose flexibility on employees in this way it generates two sets of problems. The first is that since hours and earnings are both variable and unpredictable, employees have difficulty in making savings, applying for mortgages and financial products and in organising childcare and social life. Normal short-term financial planning is difficult since it is difficult simply to know how much money is available for food, rent and that sort of thing. This precarious employment also makes longer term planning difficult, including for example around parenthood. This is something we really need to get our heads around. People are literally delaying having children because they cannot predict their futures. Although we have not focused on this immediately, we gather that variable hours can also create problems for part-time workers in their applications for jobseeker's allowance.

The second set of problems has already come up today and it is that employers can use the offer of hours as a form of control, in particular in relation to employees' working time itself. If the employer wishes the employee to work at hours which the employee finds inconvenient, the employee can refuse those hours in theory. In practice, however, this will result in the employee being offered fewer hours next week or next month. We must be clear in this regard that people often talk about this as a punishment or a threat. In fact, it is more insidious than that. People know that they have to be available and to accept the hours offered in order to get into a position where they have better hours. Our respondents talk about getting better hours and working their way towards that. Obviously, many part-time workers work regular hours and therefore do not encounter these problems.

Equally, many workers work part time by choice. However, many are clearly identified as involuntary part-time workers. According to EUROSTAT, in Ireland in 2016, 31.5% of all those employed part time were involuntary. Our interviews with workers in the hospitality sector indicate that most want to find part-time work but, crucially, with regular and predictable hours. Many, however, do not receive them.

Zero-hour contracts are banned in Ireland and should remain so. The proposed Bill would make it more difficult for employers to misuse if-and-when contracts to impose variability on employees. The existing regulation under the 1997 Act would then become a useful minimum standard for variable working hours.

There is a discussion about the administrative burden the Bill would impose on small business. The Bill does not appear to impose an additional burden on employers regarding employees’ claims of being moved to a specific band. Employees are required to receive pay slips reflecting the hours they have worked. Under the Bill the obligation would be on the employee to produce that documentation which they should retain. Section 3 would impose an obligation on the employer to display available hours. The employer already has that information and it should not be difficult to make it available. The ban on zero-hour contracts is crucial because contracts which grant employers control over employees’ time without remuneration cannot be justified on ethical grounds.

The Low Pay Commission is primarily responsible for determining the appropriate level of the national minimum wage. A single statutory hourly minimum wage has the enormous advantage of simplicity. Everyone knows what it is and that it should be enforced. Research shows that the introduction of the national minimum wage in 1990 contributed to putting a floor under income distribution. In determining the national minimum wage the Low Pay Commission has to take cognisance of matters such as the level of actual earnings in the economy. Earnings are determined not only by the hourly rate but also by the number of hours worked and the variability of these hours. Accordingly, the extent of low-paid hours and variable contracts is important. However, making the commission actually regulate hours worked would undermine the simplicity and, hence, the effectiveness of its current work.