Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This amendment arises from the temporary agency workers legislation and was introduced to bring clarity to the situation regarding who complaints can be made against under the Employment of Employees (Temporary Agency Work) Act 2012. That Act is unique in employment law in that there are three actors involved: the employee, who is the agency worker; the employer, who is the agency; and the hirer, which is the entity for whom the agency worker carries out the work. The 2012 Act clearly distinguishes those sections of the Act where an employee can take a case against the employer from those sections of the Act where an employee can take a case against the hirer. As the purpose of the Workplace Relations Bill is to streamline structure and processes rather than to make any substantive changes in employment rights legislation, it is important that section 42 of the Bill which deals with the presentation of complaints, clearly reflects this distinction. The amendments being made to section 42 do not change the broad scheme of the section as it relates to the Employment of Employees (Temporary Agency Work) Act 2012. It still remains the case that those provisions of that Act which can be subject of a claim against an employer are included in Schedule 5 of the Bill. The amendment being made to subsection (1) clarifies that the provisions listed in that schedule are those where a complaint can be made that an employee's employer has contravened any of the provisions listed in Schedule 5. Previously, the text of paragraph (1) did not specify against whom a complaint could be made, simply stating that an employee or specified person could present a complaint to the director general that a provision of Schedule 5 had been contravened in relation to the complainant. The ambiguity has now been clarified.

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