Ms Annie Hoey:

In response to the questions on employment rights and on the notice of working hours, we have quotes from two students. One is from Dublin Institute of Technology, DIT and earns €10 an hour. The student is on a zero-hour contract making it impossible to budget or plan, because at most the shift is given a week in advance so while a zero-hours contract seems great in terms of flexibility with the college schedule it makes it difficult to spend money on anything other than the bare essentials of food, bus fare and medication without worrying that the money will be needed later. A low wage with no stability in terms of hours creates unnecessary stress but the student knows that having no contract means kicking up a fuss, leaving them powerless. The student can never challenge the manager if they feel they are unfairly treated as they are easily replaced. The person is paid twice a month and has had paychecks weeks or months late but is afraid to kick up too much of a fuss in case that is the last cheque. Another student who works in a bookshop says low wages are not the main problem but low hour contracts and schedules that change week to week are. There is no security or room for planning simple things like doctors' appointments.

We find students either do not know their employment rights or are too afraid to speak up when they do know them. We do a lot of work with various trade unions to try to inform students of their rights. We do a blitz of all the colleges in September but we cannot reach everyone and we firmly believe it should be an enacted legislative requirement that an employer who does not inform their employees of their rights is chased up. There are too many people up and down the country who do not have a clue that it is outrageous, that their employer is breaking the law, and that if they are not being paid for extra hours it is wrong. Those who do know are too afraid to speak up because of the "if and when contracts". On the point about punishment and reward, the hours of people who stick to the status quoand do not kick up any fuss mysteriously go up while another person is back down to an hour a week. It is a very sickening environment to work in and incredibly stressful.

Students constantly come to us saying they know it is wrong but they cannot do anything about it. There is a lot of legislation in place but students are not in a position to go to the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, in order to take someone on. This is very hard for non-unionised workers but it is also very hard to unionise students, despite my best efforts. Trying to get them into unions is like pulling teeth but there are many sectors that are not unionised. If the employers are not providing that information there is no way for the students to find that out. It requires word of mouth and someone telling them this is wrong. We find students stay schtum because if they do not they will be punished and someone else will be rewarded for the good work.

The notice of working hours would help students. We are not asking for an absolutely guaranteed full-blown contract at an outrageous wage but for a guarantee of a minimum number of hours so that people can at least plan. It is very hard to lead a life when one does not know what is happening and finds out on a Sunday that this is how it will be. We believe with the banded hours contract people will at least be able to work out where they will be in six months time. That is not even security but a basic minimum, like the living wage. It will give employees a minimum to be at least able to figure out where they will be for the next couple of weeks and make doctors’ appointments and do all the basic things that people need to be able to do to lead a decent life. The banded hours will at least give a small sense of stability for the workers on all these precarious "if and when" contracts in these industries. We have all outlined similar industries.