Mr. Mark Doheny:

We had significant input from both employer and employee representatives. We specifically had a question in the consultation about what were thought might be reasonable grounds to refuse. In effect, there were 27 to 28 different variations of reasons for refusal brought in. I noted from their testimony here that representatives of IBEC said that they felt some were not even reflected within the 13. The grounds were intended as something that might be reasonable for a particular scenario.

Obviously, this is a statutory employment right and it is going to apply to all. It is a step change with an employee having the power to essentially renegotiate a key part of the contract, and we have to be mindful of the potential impact on employers. The stated grounds were stated broadly because a broad number of grounds were given, and they were given repeatedly. It was not a case of it being one isolated event. Even workers in their submissions gave grounds. We had well in excess of 100 personal respondents and some of them said that the broadband speed where they were would have been a factor in why they believed they could not get it. We made an effort to reflect all of them and the broadness of the grounds is reflective of the submissions we received.