Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge what the Deputy is trying to do but the amendment would weaken the provision rather than strengthen it because it will restrict rather than protect an employee. The amendment confines adverse treatment of an employee to actions by the employer and under the Bill, penalisation includes adverse treatment by anybody acting on behalf of an employer. This could exclude agency workers. If an employer gets somebody else to do his dirty work and treats an employee badly as a result of invoking rights under the legislation, the employee is protected by the penalisation in it regardless of who is engaged in the bad treatment. That would not the case if the amendment were passed. The text in the Bill is taken from the Protection of Employees (Temporary Agency Work ) Act 2012 and it is the strongest anti-penalisation provision in employment rights legislation.

Anti-penalisation provisions were a new departure in the Terms of Employment (Information) Act 1994. An employee was not previously protected from being penalised for asking for a contract of employment in writing beforehand and I am not disposed to accepting the amendment on the basis that it weakens what we are trying to do, which is to protect employees and assert their right under this legislation to protection from anybody who treats them badly, whether it is the employer or anybody acting on his or her behalf.