Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate the Deputy's intentions but I cannot accept this amendment. The intent behind the section is to oblige directors to notify employees and their representatives, where they exist in the company concerned, of the petition they have filed at court. The court, under a consequential amendment by section 21 to section 572 of the Companies Act, could have regard to whether the company has met this obligation when making the winding-up order. Employees' representatives are generally the trade union officials or local shop stewards who are also employees and their duties and responsibilities are set out in the WRC code of practice, which I know Deputy O'Reilly of all Deputies is extremely familiar with.

The Government supports the right of any worker to join and be active in a trade union; however, it is not intended to include provisions specific to any type of employee, that is to say, trade union members or non-trade union members, as would be the effect of the amendment.

As I explained on Committee Stage, it may also be difficult to assess what constitutes the employee's recognised trade union where it is not recognised by the employer. There may be more than one union or there may be very few members as a proportion of the total employees.

I am confident the enhanced rights to information conferred on employees by this section as it stands are robust and unambiguous. It is not obvious the amendment would enhance rights of employees and it appears possible it would introduce a degree of uncertainty. For those reasons, I cannot accept the amendment.

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