Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister. I and my Fianna Fáil colleagues welcome the Bill. The Minister's contribution was excellent. I will look at this from a different angle. We also see how hard Irish people have worked. If we learned anything from the recession, we learned that. They work so hard and have been upskilling and changing their careers. They are moving forward and getting by as best they can. The great thing about this is that they contribute to the figures that are constantly quoted in respect of the return to almost full employment. However, the type of work they have found is not what we can really call full employment. These famous figures should be scrutinised. In recent years we have seen a new category of employee, the zero-hour employee. This employee has a contract but it is not worth the paper it is written on. Under this contract, the employee is available for work but does not have specific hours of work. It is a formal arrangement where the worker is required to be available for a certain number of hours per week or when required, or a combination of both.

Employees on zero-hour contracts are protected by the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997 but this does not apply to casual employment. Sometimes they do not feel part of a team. They work just as hard as everyone else in the company. In some cases, they get no holidays, no sick days and no parental leave. This type of work offers them no security, no commitment and certainly no standing that would allow them to seek to obtain mortgages or assistance with paying rent because their wages are averaged over the year and they work so haphazardly that the numbers never quite add up. The Bill has been sorely needed for a very long time. It has already taken too long to get to this House. It has some great aspects. I see the work of my colleague, Deputy O'Dea, in this. It is important to acknowledge that. I welcome anything that would enhance minimum payments to workers who are called in to work only to be sent home. We need to empower the workforce again. We need to see a true reflection of who is working and the types of work they are doing if we are to develop correct policies. We cannot pat ourselves on the back and state that the country is working again if so many workers do not know if they will work next week or next month, or for how long.

There has been an increase in the number of companies hiring people on the basis of bogus self-employment. The Minister is addressing that, which I welcome. These workers do not own their own companies and are not financially in a position to assume risk. They pay their taxes but often seek assistance from charities because they are caught in zero-hour contracts. They have little other choice. They want to work, so let us put the power back into their hands and get them real contracts. The Minister and others stated that there are very good employers out there and I agree that it is important to recognise them. The Bill is required for those who need it most. I am thinking of families who come into my clinic and who cannot get mortgages because of zero-hour contracts. We need to get this through before Christmas. I congratulate the Minister. The legislation is really positive for the working person.