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

I must point out the penalisation provision in the Bill provides that when an employee makes a complaint, it is presumed until the contrary is proven that the employee concerned has acted reasonably and in good faith in making the complaint because otherwise why would they make it? There is very strong protection for the employee. Then it goes over to being a matter for the employer to respond to the complaint and for the independent adjudicator from the Workplace Relations Commission to consider both sides of the argument. It is very fair and reasonable that both sides get an independent hearing and that there is not a presumption that the outcome will be of a particular way before that independent arm of the State gets to adjudicate on it, and it does it well, obviously. Section 7 of the existing Terms of Employment (Information) Act provides that a decision of an adjudication officer shall declare that the complaint was, or maybe was not, founded, and these provisions taken together achieve what I think Deputies might be trying to achieve by these particular amendments.

Section 10 defines penalisation in broad terms and even includes the threat of being penalised. As I stated, section 10 mirrors the updated and more comprehensive penalisation provisions used by more recent employment statuses. Three penalisation provisions are well settled, and there is no evidence that the relevant provisions are lacking in anything with regard to the protection for an employee. It is also worth noting that many practitioners and other stakeholders have been critical in the past about the lack of uniformity of comparable provisions across a very large number of employment statuses and regulations. To accept this amendment would change the tried and tested penalisation provisions and I am not sure it would add anything other than grist to the mill.

I am sorry, but the best way for me to proceed is to ask the Deputies to come back and discuss it on Report Stage. On this basis I ask them to withdraw the amendments. I know what they are trying to achieve, but there has to be fair and due process, and this is why we have the independent authority that is the Workplace Relations Commission. The penalisation measures we have put into the Bill to protect people from being penalised for the threat of taking further action are strong enough to be able to support employees in the way I think the Deputies are trying to do with these provisions.