Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

We welcome the Bill and support it as a first step in addressing the imbalance in worker-employer rights. We note Unite's recent report on low wages and precarious work, and Mandate's report that found that 17% of people who live below the poverty line work precarious jobs with so-called zero-hour contracts. We had a discussion earlier under Topical Issues on the Social Justice Ireland report. The top 1% has seen its wealth and influence grow massively. The flipside to what has happened there is that thousands of workers are left without secure, pensionable jobs with a living wage. Many in this House would argue against the rights of workers to secure a pensionable job as being uncompetitive and jeopardising growth in the economy. There is a myth that flexible contracts for both the employer and the employee when they enter into an agreement freely is in the interest of both: the reality is very different. The benefit is overwhelmingly for the employer. Workers cannot refuse the contracts for fear that, if they turn them down, it will result in them being victimised and having work withdrawn from them. We are back to the days when Larkin had to organise dockers against a system where foremen could pick and choose the dockers they wanted and the hours they wanted.

The University of Limerick report by Esther Lynch has been referred to a number of times. She acknowledges in the report that it is hard to find figures for Ireland, but reports done recently for Britain strongly suggest that most people on these contracts are women, are young or are over 65 years of age. Interestingly, it also finds that those guilty of using these types of contracts are not the SMEs and smaller businesses, but the multinationals and the very big employers and the likes of Domino's Pizza, Dunnes Stores, Deliveroo, call centres and contract cleaners. Very big employers use these types of contracts.

I have lots more to say that I will not get time for, but I reserve my last comments for Fianna Fáil. I cannot get over the suspenders that make up Fianna Fáil. I made a list of the things they have suspended in the last couple of weeks: water, bins, repeal the eight amendment, the NAMA investigation, education equality and now banded hours. I am probably leaving a couple out and there is probably more to come. The attempt by Fianna Fáil to suspend this for discussion for a year is quite disgusting, while at the same time pretending they give a damn about workers' rights. We welcome the Bill and would like to see it go through Committee Stage so we can table amendments, such as ones that would force employers to pay proper overtime rates, limit the period a worker can be called in to work on such contracts to four hours, limit the length of time a worker can be put on such contracts and limit the proportion of a workforce that can be put on such contracts. Ultimately, we believe the greatest measure to stop this abuse is trade union organisation and the free and legal right for unions to organise in workplaces, enter workplaces and speak directly to and directly organise their members. That is what will really undermine these types of contracts, not the scare tactics of the type of employer we have to endure, or the obfuscation of Fianna Fáil. Its amendment is disgraceful.

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