Tony Killeen (Clare, Fianna Fail)

I made a promise to revisit this issue on Report Stage. A number of amendments were proposed by both sides of the House and an interesting discussion ensued. I have given considerable thought to a number of issues arising from these proposals.

These amendments are grouped because they address the issue of protections given to employee representatives under the Bill. Provision is being made to allow representatives to take paid time off while exercising their functions under the legislation, to provide them with the right to make complaints to a rights commissioner and, in the event of a complaint being upheld, to obtain compensation for any penalisation by an employer with regard to the exercise of functions under the legislation. These changes were proposed by Senators O'Toole and McDowell.

Eleven amendments are required to make provision for the bringing of a complaint because they are consequential on each other. A new schedule, Schedule 3, will be added to the Bill. The grouping of these amendments is the most efficient way of addressing these issues because we will otherwise discuss them out of context. By separating them into distinct units, we will lose the common train of thought that runs through them.

On Committee Stage, Senators O'Toole and McDowell made the point that it would be useful to specify that employers must allow paid time off to employee representatives. Having considered that point, I included it in this format. Clearly, employees should not suffer financial losses for undertaking representative duties. The wording I used in this amendment reflects that used in other relevant legislation, most notably the Transnational Information and Consultation of Employees Act 1996, which has been adapted to link it to the provisions of this Bill for allowing reasonable paid time off to representatives.

The purpose of the other Government amendments in this group is to provide for redress for employee representatives who are penalised under section 13 of the Bill. The Bill already provides that an employer shall not penalise an employee representative and section 19 provides that it is an offence for an employer to do so.

However, Senator McDowell pointed out the need to specify a mechanism in terms of penalisation of employee representatives in these information and consultation arrangements. Arising from Senator McDowell's comments, I am proposing to include a provision which allows for specific steps by which a representative who believes that he or she has been penalised may make a complaint to a rights commissioner. The rights commissioner's decision can be appealed to the Labour Court and the decisions of both rights commissioners and the Labour Court are enforceable by the Circuit Court. Provision is also made for the payment of compensation to employee representatives found to have been penalised.

The number of amendments involved can be explained by the fact that inserting these new provisions affects many other sections and, therefore, many technical adjustments are required in other sections on the advice of the Parliamentary Counsel in order to ensure consistency between the new and existing provisions. We have taken legal advice on that and have been assured that this is the way to do it.

It is worth noting that there are no provisions for redress for employee representatives who are penalised in many key pieces of employment rights legislation. Most do not even provide for the protection of employee representatives. Where such protection exists in the Transnational Information and Consultation of Employees Act, there is no redress provided, nor are there offences or penalties relating to the matter. The 2005 Health and Safety Act provides that an employer shall not penalise an employee for, inter alia, being a safety representative and that the employee has recourse to a rights commissioner, if he or she has a complaint. It is not an offence under the Health and Safety Act for an employer to penalise an employee.

In this Bill we have made strong provision for the protection of employee representatives by making it an offence, with appropriate penalties, if an employer commits a breach. The amendments I propose will provide strong and effective new protections for employee representatives. I was impressed by the case made in this regard and that is the reason I brought forward these amendments on this Stage.