Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)

Nothing is mentioned on the handling of repeat offenders or employers who are served with future compliance notice of breaches. A potential deterrent to repeat offenders could be added. In addition, section 47(1) should be changed from "any amount of money" to "the full amount of money" owing to the person. It is important.

It is important that the employment rights of undocumented workers are upheld in the Bill and that inspectors and legal representatives follow this through. To date, the inspectorate has indicated it cannot or will not seek moneys owed to undocumented workers. Any bar on the recovery of lost wages by an undocumented worker would lessen the liability of unscrupulous employers and make it more financially attractive to them to hire undocumented workers.

The Supreme Court in the US held that a National Labour Relations Act definition of employees included undocumented aliens and concluded that the abdication of the Act to illegal aliens helps to ensure the wages and employment conditions of lawful residents are not adversely affected by the competition of illegal alien employees who are not subject to standard terms of employment. It also stated that if an employer realises there would be no advantage under the Act to preferring illegal aliens to legal resident workers, any incentive to hire such illegal aliens is correspondingly lessened.

In Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Germany and Spain workplace rights are not status based. In Belgium, several laws state that the fact a contract is not valid does not relieve the employer from the duty to employ the rules on minimum wages, industrial action and working hours. This means workers can seek redress and this is confirmed by several judgments.

I know my colleague, Deputy Higgins, is very hot on this issue and will refer to it later on. We will broadly support the Bill, subject to a number amendments we will table.

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