Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin Bay North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 2:

In page 16, line 39, after “proceedings” where it secondly occurs to insert the following: “, other than proceedings taken by or on behalf of an employee to the Workplace Relations Commission or the Labour Court,”.

The Minister of State will see what we are trying to do in the section on relevant courts powers to stay proceedings or restrain further proceedings is to ensure that those proceedings are not those taken by or on behalf of employees to the Workplace Relations Commission or the Labour Court. While we understand what the Government is trying to achieve with the Bill, with this amendment we are trying to ensure the worker always has recourse regardless of how small the business is.

Again, we table these amendments in a constructive fashion because none of us wants to be in a position where people will say to us in six or 12 months' time that we passed a problematic Bill, that workers within this new system we have just legislated and voted for are not protected and how come we did not know that. The amendment addresses that and I will be interested to hear the Minister of State's response.

See this speech in context