Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

There are standard penalties, but one would have to go to the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, to vindicate that and to assess the level of damage to the person. If people said they had an illness, the employer would be obliged not to visit the local Centra and gossip about it. That obligation already exists. Not to belabour the point, that is why this is being included in the Organisation of Working Time Act. The intention is that when people have that time off, it is their own business and their own time to avail of leave. It is brilliant that, in all of the discussions on this, nobody has asked what happens if someone takes that leave who is not entitled to it. If that is ever raised, I make every person in the room state whether they would apply for this leave, and everyone I have ever met has said no. That does not arise. People run the risk in the same way as when they go to an employer to say they are going to hospital next week for a procedure. While no disrespect is intended, I note people run the same risk if they go to confession, in that they are making something known. In this case, they are putting their trust in the employer. There are many good employers that will move ahead on this, including National University of Ireland, Galway, Ulster Bank, Vodafone and others. The legislation is necessary for those employers that might need a nudge, though that is not to say they are not good employers.

This discussion is part of the legislative process; it is bringing it out into the open and is reminding people that this is leave. If Ms Murphy is off work because she is having a procedure on her veins, it is only the business of herself, her doctor and anybody else who she wants to tell. For the same reason, if Ms Murphy has to go to court, it is nobody's business. One cannot legislate for people talking to each other over the garden fence with a mouthful of clothes pegs, because that will happen. It would be silly for us to try to legislate for that. We have tried to include it with the leave that already exists, building on the practice that people in HR, the unions and the representative organisations have to follow. People are only as good as their reputation and they will not last long in HR or as a representative if they have a reputation for gossiping. This builds on confidentiality which has been developed over years and is how HR should work, although it is not how it has always worked. Penalties already exist for other forms of leave and related confidentiality issues. All employers have obligations relating to GDPR, whether they are large multinational corporations or two-person operations.