Mr. Richie Browne:

I want to re-state or emphasise the issue of banded hours. Effectively, somebody who is guaranteed or contracted for ten hours a week but in fact works 20, 25 or 30 hours a week, on a regular and continual basis, would be given the ability to look back over a reference period, state that he or she had actually worked 20 or 25 hours week on a continual or regular basis and make a claim for that certainty or for those hours.

That does not place an additional financial burden or an extra cost on the employer because the employer is already paying. The employee is doing those hours on a regular basis and is getting paid for them. They are not worked for nothing. The employee is getting paid for them, which means the employer is already paying for those hours. All this does is give that person a degree of certainty in respect of their own financial arrangements and personal circumstances. It is not an additional cost or extra financial burden on the employers. They are already paying it anyway.