Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Bill itself entirely misses the point of banded hours. I will tell the Deputy about what it does not do and what the Government's Bill does. Our Bill ensures that workers are better informed about their core terms of employment at a very early stage. That is important for any employee taking on a job. It strengthens the existing minimum compensation provisions for low-paid workers who are called to work and are not provided with the work itself. The six-month reference period in the Sinn Féin Bill is far too short to take into account the normal peaks of businesses, including seasonal businesses as well. The six-month period would certainly produce a skewed result. The Bill requires that every employer in the country displays notices in their workplaces indicating the number of hours being allocated to workers. The Bill, in our view, does not deal with the range of issues that we have encompassed in our Bill. We are also prohibiting zero-hour contracts in most circumstances, which is not included in the Sinn Féin Bill. We are ensuring that workers on low-hour contracts who consistently work more hours each week than are provided for in their contracts are designated those hours. We have seen many examples in the past where workers are on 15-hour contracts but are working 40 hours or so per week. This will strengthen the employees.

See this speech in context