Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)

I move amendment No. 27:

In page 34, to delete lines 35 to 37 and substitute the following:

" "(fa) a reference to any registered employment agreement or employment regulation order which applies to the employee and confirmation of where the employee may obtain a copy of such agreement or order,",".

This is essentially a tidying-up amendment designed to ensure the provision is consistent with existing provisions under section 3 of the Terms of Employment (Information) Act 1994 governing the requirements for an employer to provide a written statement of terms of employment to an employee. The purpose of section 18 is to strengthen provisions relating to informing workers of their statutory entitlements by requiring the employers of any worker to whom an employment regulation order or registered employment agreement applies to include the terms of the ERO in a written statement of terms of employment to be given to the worker under section 3 of the Terms of Employment (Information) Act of 1994. To this end, section 18(b) of the Bill, as published, provides for the insertion of a new section 3(1)(fa) in the Terms of Employment (Information) Act as follows: "the terms of any registered employment agreement or employment regulation order applicable to the employee". This new provision compares unfavourably with the existing section 3(1)(m) in the Act of 1994 relating to collective agreements, which only requires that the written statement of terms of employment contain "a reference to any collective agreements which directly affect the terms and conditions of the employee's employment including, where the employer is not a party to such agreements, particulars of the bodies or institutions by whom they were made". Accordingly, for collective agreements, the only requirement is to refer the employee to relevant collective agreements as opposed to providing the terms of such agreements.

The difficulty with the original drafting is that some of these types of agreements and orders go through a series of iterations and become highly complex documents. Under the original drafting, the employer would be required to provide a complex document to every employee, whereas the existing provision is to provide the employee with an agreement referring to the fact that his or her terms and conditions are based in the registered employment agreement and the institutions and bodies that made it and to which he or she may proceed if unhappy with any of the provisions.

See this speech in context