Dr. Deirdre Curran:

I wish the committee good afternoon. I am utterly delighted to be here not on my own behalf but on the behalf of hospitality workers whose voices I am representing this afternoon. I conducted substantial research into the lived experience of hospitality workers towards the end of 2019 and my research had three methods. The first was a comprehensive online survey. The second method was in-depth interviews with five workers who had 30, 40 or 50 years' experience in the sector. As a third method, I invited workers to submit audio files outlining what they liked about working in the hospitality industry and what they disliked about it. I also asked them to tell me about an incident when they felt unfairly or badly treated.

Some of the headline statistics are: 63% witnessed or experienced bullying; 55% witnessed or experienced harassment; 77% experienced verbal abuse sometimes or often; 64% experienced psychological abuse sometimes or often; and 16% experienced physical abuse sometimes or often. In terms of their legal rights: 70% did not get a Sunday premium; 43% did not have a proper contract; 52% did not get their minimum rest breaks; 12% were paid below the minimum wage; and 20% did not get holiday pay - I remind members that the law is a minimum standard; the perpetrators of ill treatment were usually people in positions of power; the mature recipients had particularly insightful insights into what could be better in the sector; 40% of hospitality workers said that they had no voice; 47% never received supportive feedback from their managers; and tips were often withheld in whole or part.

I would make a number of recommendations that I would make on the basis of this research. We need better governance from ministerial level downwards. We need a basic set of standards that are regulated, monitored and enforced. The Workplace Relations Commission offers an excellent inspection service but it is limited in terms of what it can do and in the context of the number of inspectors. I recommend a targeted campaign. We need good behaviour and practice to be incentivised. We need funding to be linked to good behaviour and practice. We need ethical leadership from employer bodies. We absolutely need a stronger voice for workers. There are a number of prominent task forces but the voice of workers is shockingly silent.

We need apprenticeships, but not as a source of cheap labour. We need apprenticeship programmes to have content and outcomes that are linked to employment rights, how to use your voice and how to deal with bullying and harassment.

We need people who are managing in hospitality to be trained in people management as a given. We need people to be paid properly. If they start on the minimum wage, which I object to in principle, then they have to see a path above the minimum wage and cannot be retained on it. We need legal protection in respect of tips. This is an easy win because Senator Gavan's Bill is sitting on the shelf. The UK authorities introduced legislation in the past couple of months to prevent tip theft.

There is loads of scope for improvement. I ask the members of the committee to seriously consider what they can do with their influence and power in order to contribute to the reform of the hospitality sector. Producing a report on today's proceedings would be a great ideal. A joint committee hearing with representatives from the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment would be lovely. We absolutely need to hear the voice of workers. I hope at some point today to share some direct quotes from workers with the committee.