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

Amendment No. 47 is in my name. Deputy O'Dea moved a similar amendment earlier on. The penalisation measures need to be strengthened by the insertion of the amendment. I am easy about the other amendments in the group. We are concerned at the prospect of a reduction in hours being used as a weapon against an employee who may, for example, have taken a case against an employer to the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC. In cases such as that and in the context of the amendment, the onus would be on the employer to prove that the reduction of hours is justified on objective grounds and is entirely unrelated to the processing and adjudication of the complaint. Deputy O'Dea made a similar point earlier about the onus being on the employer to deal with the situation. It is an administrative issue rather than something to be criminalised and it would deal with the situation on the ground. I hope the Minister can deal with the amendment positively.