Tony Killeen (Clare, Fianna Fail)

I only spoke about the parts of the amendment in the names of Senators McDowell and O'Toole that I was accepting; there are also the other two elements. The definition of what constitutes penalisation in the Senators' amendment is based on the Industrial Relations (Amendment) Act 2004. The Act provides a dispute resolution mechanism in situations where it is not the practice of the employer to engage in collective bargaining negotiations. It makes provision for complaints of victimisation to be made to a rights commissioner by an employer, a trade union or accepted body or an employer on behalf, or with the consent, of the employee.

The definition of penalisation used in the Bill, as drafted, is based on the code of practice on employees representatives. This was agreed by the social partners and is similar to section 17(1) of the Transnational Information and Consultation of Employees Act 1996. On balance, we have probably captured the essence of what the Senators are trying to achieve.

There is the question of the making of regulations by the Minister setting out the minimum facilities to be afforded to employee representatives and it is considered that provision of this nature is unnecessary. The Minister has power under section 42 of the Industrial Relations Act 1990 to request the Labour Relations Commission to draw up a code of practice concerning industrial relations. The Labour Relations Commission has also the right on its own initiative to draft codes of practice for submission to the Minister. Before submitting a draft code of practice to the Minister, the commission must seek and consider the view of organisations representative of employers and workers and any such other bodies as the commission considers appropriate. I am sure everybody would agree that the LRC has an excellent track record in this regard.

In September of this year we requested the LRC to prepare a code of practice to assist employers and employees in implementing the provisions of the new legislation. I believe that, on balance, people will be very well served between the provisions of the Bill and provisions in the code of practice, which is an excellent piece of work by the LRC.