Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for coming in and taking the time to provide a comprehensive opening statement. I will take up the target 8.8, protecting labour rights and promoting safe and secure working environments for all workers including migrant workers, particularly women migrants and those in precarious employment. My colleague, Deputy O’Reilly, asked whether the Department had any concerns about the Unfair Dismissals Act. I want to follow up on that. I have a particular issue with the Unfair Dismissals Act arising from ten years' practice as a trade union official. The Act, as currently constituted, means that where people are found to be unfairly dismissed, they will only get compensation in line with their loss. In other words, if they are unfairly dismissed from a job and they take up another job two months later, the maximum compensation they can get is two months' pay. In practice, that is often an easy outlet for bad employers to dismiss workers because they will not have to pay much in compensation.

I have dealt with numerous instances where people decided to join a trade union to stand up for their fellow workers and the unfair dismissal route was blatantly used by employers because they knew that the person would find work relatively quickly and, therefore, there would be no real damage done as it would cost a couple of grand in a pay-out. That is a fundamental flaw with the unfair dismissals legislation. There is not enough of a deterrent to employers to be careful around this. What does Dr. Coates make of that point? Is it not high time the Act was reviewed given that it does not give enough effective protection to vulnerable workers, particularly those who want to organise in trade unions?