Tony Killeen (Clare, Fianna Fail)

With regard to amendment No. 11, the Bill does not make any provision for disciplinary proceedings against an employee, which is one of the difficulties. The matter of disciplinary proceedings does not arise in the directive and is outside the scope of the transposing legislation.

On Committee Stage I spoke about the code of practice, which would deal with the sort of issue raised in the amendment. The code, published as Statutory Instrument No. 146 of 2000, was drawn up between the Department, the Labour Relations Council, IBEC, ICTU, the Employment Appeals Tribunal and the Health and Safety Authority. It sets out best practice for addressing difficulties in disciplinary matters. With regard to individual representation, the code of practice provides that an employee is given the opportunity to avail of the right to be represented by a colleague or a registered trade union during grievance or disciplinary proceedings.

Amendment No. 11 does not deal with the provisions at this point in the legislation because the matter of disciplinary proceedings does not arise under the Bill being discussed.

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