Colette Kelleher (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister and commend the Government for this important legislation. As a former member of Mandate, I also commend its work in pushing for this legislation. Other trade unions have been involved too. It is a long overdue step in promoting workers' rights and a realisation of the plight that many workers in our workplaces, in the services, retail, hospitality, care, cleaning and security sectors, face daily. Women are often forced into these kinds of work with a subsequent knock-on effect on their children and ensuing poverty. I agree with John Douglas, general secretary of Mandate, which represents 40,000 workers. He stated: "This piece of legislation is the single most important piece of legislation for vulnerable workers in decades." It is urgent that we pass it speedily to provide for the prohibition of zero-hour contracts, which are deeply damaging to employees and their families, many of them women, who are bound by the contracts.

These contracts create a dictatorial environment where there is little or no certainty for the employee about hours or conditions. These blatantly unfair practices push people and families into the grip of poverty and I welcome moves to abolish them. I welcome the minimum payments and the disincentive that that will create for employers to call people in when they do not need them and not giving them work. The banded hours provisions are to be welcomed. I especially welcome sections 7, 9 and 10 relating to the written statement of core terms and conditions. People often do not know what they are entitled to and what they can ask for and that is shocking. The written statement that people are entitled to would go a long way to enhancing workers' rights and also for people to seek redress when rights are infringed.I commend the spirit of the Bill and the protection of the most vulnerable workers. I am concerned about bogus self employment and those people who deliver food to us. I am concerned about who will look after those people, who are very often young, if they have an accident and come off their bicycle and where they will get the care they need. That might not fit in this but it is an urgent matter. We are exploiting our young people particularly in exposing them to that type of employment. It is grossly unfair, it is dangerous and it needs to be outlawed, if not in this legislation then elsewhere. However this legislation gives us the opportunity to outlaw some of these unfair practices now and for good. We must also do all we can to protect those vulnerable people who do not come under the Bill’s remit. I commend the Bill.