Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

It is expected that Committee and Remaining Stages will be completed as well. The objective is to have the Bill enacted before August in order that it can come into force and assist the Garda not only in future investigations but also in current investigations.

I am conscious that in my opening comments on these amendments, I went through the technicalities involved but I would like to outline the detailed circumstances in which an employer can be regarded as penalising an individual, to which Deputy O'Brien referred. This broad definition is designed to ensure as comprehensive a protection as possible. Penalisation under the legislation when enacted will mean "any act or omission by an employer, or by a person acting on behalf of an employer, that affects an employee to his or her detriment". This will apply not only to the employer but also to someone in the employment of the employer who may seek to make life difficult for a whistleblower. Without prejudice to the generality of what could fall within the context of penalisation, the Bill expressly makes reference to an employee being suspended, laid off or dismissed; the threat of suspension, lay-off or dismissal; demotion or loss of opportunity for promotion; a transfer of duties; change of location of place of work; reduction in wages; change in working hours; the imposition or the administering of any discipline, reprimand or other penalty; and the unfair treatment of an employee.

Sometimes a vindictive employer might target an employee to make his or her life extremely difficult. On occasion one reads in the newspapers reports of court hearings or hearings before the Employment Appeals Tribunal where it is alleged, for example, that an employee has been bullied by an employer. That, of course, would constitute unfair treatment among a number of other possible forms of misconduct that could fall within that.

The definition also includes coercion, intimidation or harassment; discrimination, disadvantage or adverse treatment; injury, damage or loss; and - the classic thing that arises when someone might be known to be about to report something to the Garda - the threat of reprisal, which may be of a nature relating to the employment itself or the threat of other form of reprisal that would make the employee's life, or his or her capacity to undertake his or her work, extremely difficult. A comprehensive range of issues are covered in this so that anyone who meets his or her obligations, in particular, under the new section 19 of the Bill, will have all of the protections that he or she should require available to him or her.

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