Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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Part 3 of the Bill, on the provision of banded hour contracts, states: "A worker, or his or her trade union or a representative acting on his or her behalf, shall be entitled after a period of no less than 6 months of continuous employment with his or her employer, to request in writing of his or her employer to be moved to an increased weekly band of hours." There has been quite a lot of discussion here with all groups of witnesses about the six-month rule. We have had some groups, such as ICTU, who said it should be 18 months. The Union of Students in Ireland feels it should be six months. We have had people suggesting 12 months. What are Dr. O'Sullivan's thoughts on it? We heard that for anybody doing seasonable work, six months would not be suitable and it might have to be extended to nine months or 12 months. What are Dr. O'Sullivan's thoughts on that? It merited much discussion by all the groups that were in.