Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 20:

In page 10, to delete “so,” in line 32 down to and including line 37, and in page 11, to delete lines 1 to 3 and substitute “so.”.

This amends section 18 of the Organisation of Working Time Act, which originally dealt with zero-hour contracts. At least, it tried to. The amendment is designed to ensure a minimum number of working hours, the prohibition of the use of zero-hour contracts and the strengthening of protections around if-and-when arrangements. The Minister discussed this matter in the Dáil. Section 18 sets out the floor for minimum pay entitlements for someone whose actual hours in a given week do not match up to his or her hours on call. It also sets out compensation and other various measures, for example, the 25% of the 15-hour provision. However, the Act does not deal with a contract with few or no guaranteed hours of work and no requirement to pay employees to make themselves available on call outside of guaranteed contractual hours. Many workers are encountering these types of terms and conditions, in which companies are under no obligation to provide work to the worker and the worker is under no obligation to accept any work offered by the company at any time. The Minister suggested on Second Stage that this was rare, but I remember raising in the Dáil the matter of a copy of a contract of a significant multinational catering company, one that had done work for the State, that imposed certain conditions.

I know what the Minister will say about the amendment - I am waiting for it - but perhaps she could examine whether some of the thrust of what was said on Second Stage and today could be incorporated in a way that would strengthen the Bill. She is trying to achieve a balance, but there is no harm in redressing the fact that employees bargain from a position of weakness. For the courts, there is no ambiguity regarding the person who writes the contract, but there is ambiguity regarding the person in the weaker position. However, contracts should be construed in favour of the person in the weaker condition. In this context, that means casual workers and the like who are suffering. Can we do something to ensure that the balance is tilted somewhat back in their favour?