Professor Michael Doherty:

Deputy O'Dea is correct. When I teach employment law to undergraduates and talk about fixed-term contracts, I say it is the State section of the course because all of the cases are about the State resisting classifications. The Deputy is absolutely correct that there is an obligation on the State as an employer to be the model of best practice. We have not always seen that, unfortunately.

On public procurement, more could definitely be done at tender stage. It tends to be a little generic. While the most economically advantageous tender, MEAT, criteria are applied, we simply expect tenderers to be in compliance with the law. That is pretty much it. There is definitely scope to be a bit more specific on the criteria used. A criterion requiring that a certain percentage of persons on a project would have to be employees would have to be related to the subject matter of the contract. Why would a particular contract need employees rather than other categories of worker?