Michael Ahern (Cork East, Fianna Fail)

Section 6 provides that an employee is a "comparable permanent employee in relation to a fixed-term employee" if the permanent employee and the fixed-term employee are employed by the same or associated employer and if one of three conditions is met. If the previous circumstance does not apply, including in a case where the fixed-term employee is the sole employee of the employer, the permanent employee is specified in a collective agreement – an agreement that, for the time being, has effect in respect of the relevant fixed-term employee – to be a comparable employee with regard to the fixed-term employee or, if neither of these conditions apply, the employee is employed in the same industry or sector of employment as the fixed-term employee and if one of the three conditions I will now outline is met.

The three conditions to which I have referred are: that both employees perform the same work under the same or similar conditions or each is interchangeable with the other in respect of the work; that the work performed by one of the employees concerned is of the same or a similar nature to that performed by the other and any differences between the work performed or the conditions under which it is performed by each are of small importance with regard to the work as a whole, or occur with such irregularity as not to be significant; and that the work performed by the relevant fixed-term employee is equal or greater in value to the work performed by the other employee concerned, having regard to such matters as skill, physical or mental requirements, responsibility and working conditions.

Question put and agreed to.

SECTION 7.