Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

We adjourned a discussion on the Employment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill, which tries to deal with the insecure and unequal way workers are treated in the retail industry. Now, we have come to another area of work that involves mainly women. I am referring to those who work as SNAs. They are in insecure jobs similar to the workers we were dealing with through the Employment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill. I too appeal to the workers in this area to join a union. I appeal likewise to workers in child care and those in the English teaching sector because it is the only way such workers can push an issue onto the agenda.

I fully support the motion and I thank the Rural Independent Group for introducing it. I urge the Minister to seriously address the issues raised.

I wish to offer an example of a situation in St. Dominic's college in my area. I believe it shows the precarious nature of the work for SNAs and the associated complications. Last month, the school let go two SNAs as several children were finishing up at the end of the year and on the basis of the hours there was no longer work for them.

There might be work next year but there is none now. Two of these special needs assistants, SNAs, went on the panel and one has a job for September. The reduced hours mean that the next person has had her hours reduced from full time to 0.33 of a position, that is, two hours and five minutes every day Monday to Friday. She earns about €220 every two weeks, having gone from full time hours to 0.33 of a position. This woman is married with two children and she has been reduced to working only ten hours 25 minutes per week. She is unable to go on the panel for full-time hours as she has a job. If she left her job, she could not go on the panel because the job has to be suppressed for a person to go on the panel or take redundancy. She cannot get job seekers benefit for the extra hours because the job is over five days, Monday to Friday. She is really getting kicked around the place. There is no way anyone could stand over a worker being subjected to such conditions. She has applied for full-time positions in eight schools but because she has no panel rights, she is not getting them. She feels financially penalised and prevented from earning a full wage.

The Minister cannot stand over that and it must be addressed. The motion is calling for permanent contracts for these workers. They cannot be treated like second class citizens, or third class ones, as is the case here. This woman has more experience than the SNAs who were let go, because it was a case of last in first out, but she is getting these low hours. It is crazy. This woman is earning a quarter of her old wage and has no expectation of earning more unless additional children come into the school and increase her hours. Can the Minister stand over this inherent inequality?

Crucially, SNAs are also impacted by FEMPI. SNAs on post-2011 contracts earn €12 an hour whereas the person I spoke to was earning €18 an hour, she was employed prior to 2011 and was on the eighth point of the scale. That issue must also be addressed.

See this speech in context