The following motion was moved by Deputy Peadar Tóibín on Wednesday, 15 April 2015That Dáil Éireann: acknowledges the establishment of the Low Pay Commission and the Government’s decision to fund research by the University of Limerick into the prevalence and impact of zero-hour and low-hour contracts across both the private and public sectors; and to assess if vulnerable workers have sufficient protection under the law; notes that: — Ireland has a significant low pay problem with almost 12% of workers being at risk of poverty; — according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Employment Outlook Report for 2014 Ireland has the second highest percentage of low-paying jobs in the OECD, following the United States which has the highest; — the Dunnes Stores dispute brings to the fore the inadequacy of existing legislation to protect vulnerable workers; — currently such workers have no guarantee of hours of work; and that an employee may be scheduled for work but is likely to be sent home; — such employees are extremely vulnerable to having their working hours reduced; — the operation of split shifts whereby the employee’s hours of work are broken up across a day or week (for example working 20 hours a week spread across six days, or working 4 hours a day broken into two 2 hour shifts) makes it extremely difficult to make plans, such as provision of child care or school pick-ups, while also making it difficult to complete household budgets because there is no consistency of weekly income; — the practice of spreading a short number of hours a week across six days makes it impossible for workers to claim social welfare to boost their low income; and — employees often receive very short notice of their working hours schedule; further notes: — existing legal safeguards are inadequate, including section 18 of the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997, which requires that where an employee on a zero-hours contract has received no hours then they should be compensated either for 25% of the possible available hours or for 15 hours, whichever is less; and — the newly established Low Pay Commission is extremely narrow in focus investigating the minimum wage only; calls on the Government to introduce legislation to: — provide a clear legal entitlement to workers to full-time work; — allow workers request banded hours and place a corresponding obligation on the employer to consider the request and permit refusal only in exceptional circumstances which can be objectively justified; — require employers to provide information to employees on the overall availability of working hours available in the employment; — provide an immediate ban on all zero-hour contracts; — task the Central Statistics Office to record the incidence of low-hour contracts as part of the Quarterly National Household Survey; — amend the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997, to ensure workers are entitled to be compensated for 100% where they have been called into work; — improve the compensatory elements of the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997 to protect employees from penalisation in the form of being ‘zeroed down’; — provide a statutory entitlement to overtime for hours worked in excess of those stated in the contract or over 38 hours whichever was the lesser; — immediately implement in full the EU Directive on Part-time work; and — broaden the remit of the Low Pay Commission to deal with specific sectors where low pay is particularly prevalent such as amongst women, younger workers and migrants and to deal with other contributing factors to poverty amongst those employed such as regressive taxation and inadequate public services and State supports; and further calls on the Government to set a date for the introduction of Collective Bargaining legislation before the summer recess which statutorily compels employers to engage with trade unions; provides for trade union recognition; and has robust anti-victimisation clauses to protect workers from intimidation. Debate resumed on amendment No. 1: To delete all words after “Dáil Éireann” and substitute the following:“acknowledges that in steering the country through and out of the economic crisis the Government has focused on protecting the most vulnerable workers, pursued an agenda of maintaining and improving employment rights and reforming and enhancing both the industrial relations institutions of the State and the industrial relations legislative framework utilised by workers and employers, and in this regard:— recognises the legislative changes introduced by the Government to protect workers’ rights, especially the most vulnerable workers in society, and in particular; — to restore the cut in the national minimum wage, thereby reaffirming that a statutory minimum wage is a statement of core values, providing a threshold of decency under which society agrees that workers’ wages should not fall; — through the enactment of the Industrial Relations (Amendment) Act 2012, to reinstate the joint labour committee system to support wage setting in sectors where workers are poorly organised and vulnerable, and wages tend to be low; and — to enact legislation (the Protection of Employees (Temporary Agency Work) Act 2012) to protect temporary agency workers through a legal framework in which agency workers are afforded equal treatment in respect of their basic working and employment conditions; — further recognises the Government’s commitment to pursue an extensive industrial relations and employment rights reform agenda and in this respect notes the progress made, including the following in particular:Low Pay Commission:— the establishment of the Low Pay Commission earlier this year as an independent body that, taking specified economic and social matters into account, will make annual recommendations to the Government on the national minimum wage and related matters; — that establishment of the Low Pay Commission on an interim basis, in advance of legislation to establish the commission on a statutory basis, allows it to proceed urgently with its first review of the national minimum wage; — the legislation to be published shortly, with a view to enactment before the summer, will provide that, alongside examining the national minimum wage, the Low Pay Commission will also be tasked with examining matters related generally to the functions of the commission under the Act - a work programme will be agreed by the Government and presented to the commission each year;Registered Employment Agreements:— following on from the Supreme Court judgment in the McGowan case, the Government has approved the drafting of legislation to provide a revised legislative framework to replace registered employment agreements, REAs; — the legislation will provide for the reintroduction of a mechanism for the registration of employment agreements between an employer or employers and trade unions governing terms and conditions in individual enterprises and also provide for a new statutory framework for establishing minimum rates of remuneration and pensions for a specified type, class or group of employee as a replacement for the former sectoral REA system; — this legislation has completed pre-legislative scrutiny and is due to be published shortly;Collective Bargaining:— the Government has approved the drafting of legislation to reform the Industrial Relations (Amendment) Act 2001 to provide for an improved and modernised industrial relations framework that will provide more clarity for employers and ensure that where an employer chooses not to engage in collective bargaining either with a trade union or an internal ‘excepted body’ the 2001 Act will be remediated to ensure there is an effective means for a union, on behalf of members in that employment, to have disputed remuneration, terms and conditions assessed against relevant comparators and determined by the Labour Court, if necessary; — the legislation will contain strong anti-victimisation provisions to protect workers who may feel that they are being victimised for exercising their rights under the legislation, including the introduction of interim relief against unfair dismissal; — this legislation is due to be published shortly;Study of Zero Hour Contracts and Low-Hours Contracts:— the University of Limerick has been appointed and has commenced its work on a study into the prevalence of zero hour contracts and low hour contracts in the Irish economy and their impact on employees; — the study will have a broad scope covering both the public and private sectors with a particular focus on the retail, hospitality, health and education sectors; — the study will assess current employment rights legislation as it applies to employees on such contracts; — one of the key objectives of the study is to fill the gap in knowledge currently available about the use of such contracts and their impact on employees and to enable the Government to consider any evidence-based policy recommendations deemed necessary on foot of the study;Workplace Relations Reform:— the Workplace Relations Bill 2014 which is expected to complete its passage through the Oireachtas in May will deliver a significantly streamlined workplace relations service which is fit for purpose, simple to use, independent, effective, impartial and cost-effective; it will provide for more workable and efficient means of redress and enforcement within a reasonable period for all users of the service;Organisation of Working Time Act 1997:— the Government has brought forward, in the Workplace Relations Bill 2014, amendment of the organisation of working time legislation to provide for the accrual of annual leave while absent from work on sick leave, which strikes the right balance between protecting the rights of vulnerable workers who are off work due to illness and the impact on business; andnotes:— that since the launch of the first action plan for jobs in 2012, 90,000 net new jobs have been created, of which 86% were full-time jobs rather than casual or temporary jobs; — that unemployment has fallen from 15.1% in January 2012 and will achieve single digit levels in 2015; — that average hourly earnings continue to increase ahead of inflation; and — the achievement of accelerating economic growth to 4.8% of GDP in 2014 provides the basis to continue to enhance the well-being of all in our society, particularly the less well off. - (Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation).

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