Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

A TASC publication entitled Enforced Flexibility: Working in Ireland Today documented the trend in a number of different sectors where flexibility is now an enforced condition placed on workers. This is most obvious in the hospitality and retail sectors where many workers are effectively on call, or in the construction sector where compulsory self-employment continues to be the norm. According to TASC, better jobs require the development of anchor points to re-institutionalise the employment relationship. This Bill attempts to address, at least to some extent, this reconnect between employer and employee and to at least place the onus on employers to make contracts reflect the actual working week by allowing employees to move to a band that reflects their work pattern.

The employer-employee relationship in the modern workforce has moved to the point where large employers can unilaterally change the terms and conditions of workers contracts. The balance has been totally shifted to the benefit of the employer, and workers are suffering. Is this the opportunity of the crisis that Merkel spoke about a few years ago? It is definitely an opportunity for employers to undermine workers' conditions. It is a sad reflection of the situation of so many workers that we even have to contemplate legislation such as this to try to redress the balance. The whole focus of Government and employers' policy has been to make workers into serfs whereby they are so dependent on employers that they are left with no choice but to tolerate these conditions.

Added to this is the situation in many parts of the country where no alternative employment is available that would allow workers to have some choice of where they work. We need to create a system where the rights of employees are at least equal to those of employers. This Bill would go some way towards doing that. It might be old-fashioned, but it would also create a situation where employees might value their own worth and have some respect for their employer, giving them an interest in how the company performs. That would benefit employers in the long run.

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