Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. We have already dealt it but it is important we discuss it again because, as the Deputy rightly pointed out, this is important legislation.

On 2 May the Government approved draft legislative proposals as a response to the programme for Government commitment to address the problems caused by the increased casualisation of work and to strengthen the regulation of precarious work. The draft legislation was referred to the Office of the Attorney General on 4 May for priority drafting of a Bill.

Regarding zero-hour contracts, the intention of the proposals is to avoid the contagion of an increase in these practices in this jurisdiction. The proposals provide that an employer will no longer be able to engage an employee on a contract within the meaning of section 18 (1)(a) or 18(1)(c) of the Organisation of Working Time Act where the stated contracted hours are zero unless it is genuinely casual, emergency cover or short-term relief work.

Other employees, including those with uncertain hours and those on if-and-when contracts, will benefit from the following proposals: ensuring that employees are better informed about their employment arrangements and especially their core terms shortly after commencing work; strengthening the provisions around minimum payments to low-paid workers who may be called into work for a period but not provided with that work; providing that workers on low-hour contracts, who consistently work more hours each week than provided for in their contracts of employment, are entitled to be placed in a band of hours that reflects the reality of the hours they have worked over a reference period; and reinforcing the anti-victimisation provisions for employees who try to invoke a right under these proposals.

See this speech in context