Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate that the Minister has come some distance from the Bill as originally drafted in narrowing the bands. We will never get perfection in this case and there is no magic solution. However, I believe the bands proposed by the Minister are still too wide. I believe it is important to have the bands as narrow as possible for several reasons. I realise the administration and the difficulty this will give rise to. However, we are dealing with legislation that has been long delayed and anticipated. It has been designed to deal with exploitation of part-time workers and those in precarious employment. There is a large number of such workers in the country and it is increasing.

Let us consider the bands proposed by the Minister. An employee in band A will work between one hour and seven hours. It would mean that if an employee was working six hours per week and proved troublesome or whatever, the employer could keep that person in the same band but reduce work to one hour per week. The same applies to someone in the band between eight to 15 hours. An employee who is working up to almost 15 hours per week can have the work, and the associated income, halved by the employer. Band C covers those working between 16 and 24 hours per week. The income of a worker in that band will be paltry enough in many cases but it could be reduced by keeping such a person in the same band. That could be done while the employer fulfils his obligation under the law and yet the conditions, pay and hours of the affected workers could be reduced by one third. That could make a vast difference to someone on low pay.

I realise that if that happened, the employee could make a complaint and say that the change was not related to the conditions of the business or whatever and seek penalisation. However, that is something not many employees will take on. Who wants that hassle? Such a person would be putting himself in greater trouble with the employer. That is not something an employee should be forced into.

The second point relates to people looking for credit. Let us consider person in the 16 to 24 hour per week band who goes looking for credit. Let us assume the person is working 22 hours per week. The credit union or bank will reckon that the person is guaranteed no more than 16 hours per week since that is the start of the band. Therefore, there is no guarantee that the person will be earning anything in excess of the 16 hours per week and that person's credit will be determined on that basis. I realise that if the bands are narrower again the same situation wold apply, but to a far lesser extent. While I welcome the distance the Minister has come, I believe we need to go a little further.