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

I thank the Chairman. The anti-penalisation provisions that previously existed in the Organisation of Working Time Act were drafted in 1997. The Bill uses the language from the Protection of Employees (Temporary Agency Work) Act 2012 to reinforce the provision. It is the strongest anti-penalisation provision in employment law in this jurisdiction.

Taken together, amendments Nos. 44 and 45 would weaken rather than strengthen the position of employees in their position. The Deputies will note that the penalisation provision as drafted in the Bill provides that penalisation should include a change in working hours whereas the Deputies' amendments are proposing that the penalisation would be restricted to a reduction in working hours. I am not sure if that has been fully thought through. I know what the Deputies want to do is make sure that employees cannot be penalised but a penalty could simply be bringing somebody in for a 12-hour shift on Christmas Eve, as opposed to doing what they are trying to do, which is to ensure that nobody gets fewer hours than what they are on heretofore. That is why we have been flexible insofar as we are saying there cannot be a reduction in hours but also there cannot be a change in the hours because increasing somebody's hours on a particular shift is a penalty equally as much as reducing somebody's hours on a shift. On that basis, we do not propose to accept these amendments.