Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)

I wish to share time with Deputy Naughten.

I am happy to contribute on this important motion tabled by the Labour Party. I compliment the party and others for their work in this area as they have been fighting for people's employment and other rights for a long time. I compliment a Labour Party member, Anton McCabe, on doing trojan work in exposing unscrupulous employers in my home town of Navan and elsewhere in County Meath. He deserves recognition as a strong advocate of employees' rights.

I disagree with the Labour Party motion in certain respects but in general I support the need to improve rights of workers, especially those who come from abroad and do not fully understand employment legislation or are afraid to report abuse. I accept that more information has been made available and, in some instances, SIPTU has translated information into different languages at its own expense. However, the Government needs to take a more proactive role in encouraging employees of all nationalities to seek help and report issues. Exploitation and discrimination are not acceptable. I regularly encounter cases involving employers who bring workers from abroad by offering them accommodation, which is often substandard, transport and money. The employees think the offer is great but fail to realise they are receiving less than the minimum wage.

The Minister spoke about the measures being introduced by the Government and stated that the labour inspectorate will have a full complement of 90 inspectors. However, that "will" is a long time coming and the full complement is not yet in place. There are insufficient inspectors to catch all the rogue employers operating in Ireland. I do not imply that everyone who does agency work is being mistreated but employers are getting away with exploitation in some cases.

A number of Deputies asked why the Minister refuses to accept this motion given that his amendment is quite similar. My interpretation of his response is that he wants to await the commencement of partnership talks so that he can use this as a bargaining tool. That has happened repeatedly in this House. During debates on adoptive and maternity leave Bills in the last Dáil, the Minister clearly accepted my arguments and wanted to make changes but he kept saying that we have to wait for the partnership talks. Who is in charge in this country? If something is right, it should be done straight away. We should not wait to hold talks with other groups. We are repeatedly being told that the Government cannot make decisions before consulting the partners. That is not good enough because Ministers should make decisions.

While I support the motion, I have concerns about the suggested six-week timeframe for a temporary worker to become a full-time employee. I am not convinced this is a practical period of time because, for example, seasonal workers are employed for three and four month periods. An extension of the period to three or six months might be more acceptable. However, we cannot accept the practice whereby agency staff work in Government bodies for three or four years on the same pay. These people are even employed in certain Departments. A person should be entitled to a full-time job after working two consecutive 12 month terms but I realised when researching the issue that is not the case.

Deputy Penrose referred to countries which had introduced changes. We could learn from some of these countries, especially those which have implemented collective and sectoral pay agreements. We need changes and we certainly should ensure that Departments set an example by treating people properly.

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