Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Seanad Éireann recently passed my party's Competition (Amendment) Bill which has now been placed on the Order Paper of Dáil Éireann. As I think it is the first Private Members' Bill that will pass all Stages in either House since the general election, I am naturally pleased that the Government has accepted the legislation and tabled useful amendments to improve it. The Bill only deals with the one aspect of bogus self-employment. There are pernicious and unacceptable arrangements simply to save bogus employers the cost of social insurance. Employees are coerced into falsely describing themselves as self-employed or independent contractors and, in so doing, are required to exclude themselves from the protection of employment law and the welfare system. The European Court has ruled that one is falsely self-employed if one does the same work as an employee, if one is in a relationship of subordination and required to follow instructions about the time, place and content of one's work and if one is integrated into the employer's undertaking. The Bill the Labour Party presented to the Seanad directs regulators to see through this sham and address the reality rather than the pretence. In truth, the people affected are employees and must be treated as such, with access to the rights granted in and the procedures of the employment system. The Bill is a first step and deals with just the one aspect: the right to join a trade union and bargain collectively. Does acceptance of the Bill in the other House signal a new approach to the issue, namely, a determination to tackle bogus self-employment? With a statutory definition now available, as agreed by the other House, will the Government ask the tax and welfare authorities to fully engage on the issue? Each has its own investigative unit. Will the Taoiseach ask the Revenue Commissioners and the Department of Social Protection to address and identify the issue of bogus self-employment? Is the Government determined to use all of its powers to stamp out a practice that is destructive of employees' security and rights and bring employers and employees back into the correct and proper environment regulated by law?

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