Mr. John O'Connell:

The intention, beyond publishing the report, is to engage with employers. In other areas where we have published reports and engaged with employers, we have achieved progress. However, we do so in the absence of a legislative framework. We would argue that the starting point is a report to see the extent of this practice. We know from the employee’s point of view but we do not know from the employer’s point of view to conduct a report into the extent of it. Then it is about understanding the scale of it and the legislative requirements that need to come into place. Part of that is the issue of collective bargaining, to empower workers to have that dialogue and to restore some of the power imbalance, starting with transparency in terms of having it explained in plain language what is being monitored, why it is being monitored and the legal basis of the monitoring.