Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

There is one issue I wanted to raise with the Minister of State.

The Minister of State said that workers sometimes choose that. Workers may choose to be self-employed, which is fine, but workers do not choose what companies bogusly characterise them as self-employed. They just do not. When I was representing home helps, when we went to the court, every employer that came in would say that the women - whom they referred to as "the girls" in some cases despite the fact that most would never see 50 again - like the flexibility. I want to tell the Minister of State that workers like stability. They like to know their rosters, their terms and conditions and their wages because, like everybody else, they have to be able to plan. That is important. Employers will tell you that workers like the flexibility but people do not. People like stability. That is what workers want.

With regard to Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, inspectors, is the Minister of State open to a discussion as to how their role could be expanded into enforcing regulated employment orders? We now have a situation whereby one very prominent employment order is being held up. The message goes out to employers that this is just voluntary if they do not want it. I know how much time and effort goes into these. The Minister of State has described the process. A lot of time and effort goes into coming up with these agreements, the intention being that, when they are done, you can walk out saying that a floor and minimum rates have now been established. However, when people are here on work permits, they are very often here long enough to do the work and, in some instances, although I am not saying in all instances, perhaps long enough to be exploited but not long enough to learn about their rights. The WRC must have the capacity and the resources to uphold these agreements. Otherwise, those workers, who are especially vulnerable, are left in an even more vulnerable situation.

I hope we will have occasion to discuss not only how more resources can be provided to the WRC, which is absolutely essential, but how WRC inspectors can be given additional powers. Unfortunately, this will also mean that more resources will be needed because, if the WRC is to be given more work, more people will be needed to do that work. Already, there are not enough people in the WRC. If you are an unscrupulous employer, you know how unlikely it is that you are going to be inspected. Without additional resources and additional powers, we will all be back in a room saying that regulated employment agreements are a good idea, that they are arrived at by consensus and that the majority of employers and workers want them but that the teeth necessary to enforce them are lacking.