David Norris (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister and the Bill. I am 74 years old, so I grew up in a different age.Circumstances change very rapidly nowadays. When I was younger and started working, we had an expectation of a lifetime job and a pension at the end. That is all gone now. We have the casualisation of work and we have disposable workers. Everywhere I look in my own university, people are on short-term contracts. It is the same in RTÉ. All these big organisations have them. There has been a campaign, and I think the Minister would agree, stemming from trade union sources, to address this situation. The campaign as I understand it, and I have had quite a lot of emails on this subject, is composed of six target areas that have, by and large, been pretty well met by this legislation. The target areas are as follows: ban zero-hour practices, including exploitative if-and-when contracts; provide workers with secure-hour contracts that reflect the reality of the average weekly hours worked; ensure a maximum look-back period of 12 months or less to calculate the average weekly hours; ensure the maximum width of all band of hours is no greater than five hours per week; and protect workers from victimisation for enforcing their rights under this legislation. All of them have been pretty well addressed. I am not so sure about the last target area about ensuring the legislation is implemented so that current workers can avail of its provisions for hours already completed. I do not think that is contemplated by the Bill and, in fact, I think it is explicitly prohibited.

I said I received a large amount of correspondence and I will read some of it into the record. One is from a highly educated person who is very well informed about this area. He made the following point:

The situation in Ireland currently is not the norm in Europe and is creating a race to the bottom situation. In Germany, for instance, workers can either work full time or in a 'mini-job' of 15 hours a week, with a minimum pay level of 450 euro a week. Those hours can be as flexible as employer and employee like - as long as they are met. I would struggle to find anyone to argue that this has negatively the German economy, its employment levels or its level of female workplace participation - all arguments that critics of this bill have floated.

The next piece of correspondence is more from someone at the coalface, where this legislation really hits. She made a brief statement but it is really indicative. She said:

Please, please pass this Bill as Dunnes are getting away with so much. If the staff asks for a new contract or extra hours they are given less hours the next week. Dunnes will make it harder on workers, for example, when they out on strike. After the strike the workers' hours were lowered until the shortfall was made up of what they lost on most days. Clearly, the workers cannot stand up for themselves for fear of reprisals. I am sorry that I cannot give my name but my son works for Dunnes.

That just shows the degree of victimisation. When one thinks that Dunnes Stores workers, who went out on strike protesting against apartheid and in solidarity with the people in South Africa, who are being victimised, then we really need to listen to that voice from inside Dunnes Stores.

I will talk briefly about the Bill. There are a number of highly important sections, of which section 7 is one. The section amends the 1994 Act by the insertion of a section, which provides that an employer within five days shall give a certain amount of information. That is pretty basic but I say well done to the Minister for putting the provision in legislation for, I think, the first time. Section 7(1A) states:

(a) the full names of the employer and the employee;

(b) the address of the employer in the State ...; and

(c) in the case of a temporary contract of employment, the expected duration thereof-----