Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for the amendment. Policy regarding employment rights is primarily the responsibility of my colleague, the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, and is more appropriately dealt with in employment legislation. The amendment is also straying into matters which may be more appropriate to the functions of the Workplace Relations Commission. In particular, section 11(1)(d) of the Workplace Relations Act 2015 provides that the WRC shall "conduct reviews of, and monitor developments as respects, workplace relations". I would be wary of any provision that might have the effect of duplicating the work of the WRC. I understand the intention of the amendment. The protection of workers' rights is an important consideration in all sectors, including the sectors which are regulated by the Bill.

I also acknowledge the concerns raised by Deputies regarding working conditions in the technology sector. Last year, the Joint Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment heard evidence from trade unions, experts and content moderators regarding their working conditions. The evidence pointed to issues regarding the pay and conditions of content moderators and some of the dangers inherent in the practice of hiring employees through outsourcing firms. One of the witnesses, a former content moderator, set out the very difficult nature of the work involved, as Deputy Mythen noted, and in particular the kinds of distressing content that she was required to view as part of the role.

The Tánaiste also addressed the committee and stressed the duty of care that employers have towards employees to create a safe working environment. He also indicated to the Chair of the committee that he had written to a particular technology company about the terms and conditions of content moderators and indicated that it would be on the agenda when he spoke to the company again.

It is important to stress that the protection of workers’ rights is not a core function of my Department or its agencies. It is important that our employment rights framework, which is the responsibility of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, places consistent rules and obligations on employers in all sectors of the economy.

Moving responsibility for workers’ rights to sectoral regulators would dilute the enforcement of the overarching framework and potentially lead to an inconsistent approach between sectors. In that regard, the role of an coimisiún, as an independent regulatory body, is ultimately to enforce new and updated regulatory frameworks for content regulation across broadcasting, video-on-demand and designated online services. It is not intended to regulate employment relations or assess working conditions.

As a general principle, in considering any amendments to expand the functions of an coimisiún I am very conscious of not unduly expanding the scope of an coimisiún into other areas of policy, with the effect that its core functions, which I have just outlined, might suffer or that it might duplicate the functions of other bodies in the State.