David Cullinane (Sinn Fein)

Last September this House passed a Labour Party motion that was supported by Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil, Sinn Féin, the Independents and, of course, the Labour Party itself. It proposed that greater protections be instituted for employees facing collective redundancy and that the Government review existing legislation to examine whether a longer notice period than 30 days should be provided by a company that employs significant numbers of people and intends to make collective redundancies. That was in the context of what was happening in the economy at the time.

It was brought forward in the context of what was happening in Waterford, especially with Waterford Crystal and TalkTalk where 500 workers were disgracefully treated by the company and given inadequate notice.

Since then the Government has not introduced any legislation in this area. We have had Lagan Brick, La Senza, Wilson Publishing, Game, Vodafone, Vita Cortex and many more examples of workers engaged in sit-ins and protests for their just demands. During the debate, Senator Denis Landy argued that an extension of the notice period for workers to be made collectively redundant was necessary as it would improve the situation of many workers faced on being made redundant. Yesterday, in the Dáil, my party moved the Protection of Employees (Amendment) Bill 2012. The response from the Minister of State at the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Seán Sherlock, who argued against the Labour Party motion at the time was that an increase in the notice period to 90 days is unrealistic and would lead to a prolonged period of uncertainty for employees.