Frank Fahey (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

The Committee Stage debate in the Dáil, which took place on the evening of 2 July, lasted for two hours. Some 43 amendments were discussed, eight of which were Government amendments. They were designed to improve the thrust of the Bill and I would briefly like to outline their effect to the House.

The Government put down two amendments to section 6, which deals with the conditions of the employment of fixed-term workers. Under the Protection of Employees (Part-Time Work) Act 2001, a part-time employee is prohibited from comparing himself or herself to a full-time employee for pension purposes if he or she works less than 20% of the hours of the full-time employee. There is a view, expressed by the Departments of Finance and Social and Family Affairs, that a part-time fixed-term employee could compare himself or herself to a full-time permanent employee, in which case it would be necessary to limit comparison regarding pensions to those who work at least 20% of the hours of their comparators, to be consistent with the Part Time Work Act 2001. The new section 6(5), as drafted by the Office of the Chief Parliamentary Counsel, provides for this point.

The new section 6(6) is subject to the new section 6(7) and is also in line with the Protection of Employees (Part-Time Work) Act 2001, under which protected employees are always comparing themselves to employees who work more hours than they do. In other words, the pro rata principle will become applicable in respect of pay or other conditions of employment that are dependent on hours worked. Section 6(8) provides, also for the avoidance of doubt, that Part III of the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997 relating to public holiday entitlements is not affected by the provisions of this Act. These amendments provide consistency between the part-time Act of 2001 and this Bill.

There were two Government amendments to section 7 of the Bill, which relates to objective grounds for less favourable treatment. The purpose of the first amendment in section 7(1) is to provide for greater clarity with regard to what constitutes objective grounds for the purposes of Part 2 of the Act. It adds an express provision in relation to renewing a fixed-term contract on a fixed-term basis only under section 9(4) of the Bill, to which I will refer later. This amendment had been sought by ICTU to provide for greater clarity.