Seanad debates

Tuesday, 10 June 2003

Protection of Employees (Fixed-Term Work) Bill 2003: Committee Stage.

 

I appreciate that this reads as a very cumbersome amendment, but I will try to explain it. A provision in the Protection of Employees (Part-Time Work) Act 2001, which should also have been included in this Bill, has been excluded. It relates to the fact that the comparator to which we refer can either be a person of the same gender or a person of the opposite gender – it can be one or the other. This is important because the employment equality legislation which ties into this refers only to people of the opposite sex. The failure to include such a provision leaves an argument wide open for an unscrupulous lawyer, or indeed a scrupulous lawyer. With due respect to, Senator McDowell, we know how much we love lawyers. There is a hole in the wall through which somebody can walk. I think I have covered this gap with the wording of my amendment, but it sounds cumbersome.

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