Gerald Nash (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I apologise for any distractions. The Minister knows the extent of the problem. She has spoken on the issue and has acknowledged that bogus self-employment is a problem. We differ on the way in which it should be tackled. I will be appealing to the Minister this evening to allow this Bill, in its entirety, to pass on Committee Stage. I know she has her own proposals. This is an urgent problem not just for workers who are caught up in bogus self-employment, but also for businesses whose business models are critically undermined by the fact that too many businesses, albeit a minority, engage in this practice. Business practices, hiring practices and decency in business are being undermined. We are losing incredible sums of money each year in foregone PRSI and tax revenue because of the misclassification of workers.

The Minister is aware of all of those arguments, although we differ on how the issue should be dealt with. Given that the Minister announced through the media earlier this week that she will be developing her own proposals in respect of bogus self-employment, I will be appealing to her to allow this Bill to pass on Committee Stage today. When she has prepared her proposals I will be happy to work with her. I know that other Opposition Members will also be happy to work with her if this House can engage in a meaningful way with the trade union movement and other interested parties to address this issue. I do not believe this issue can be addressed in the fundamental way in which it needs to be addressed if we do not disincentivise the practice of bogus self-employment by ensuring that, for example, those who are evading or avoiding their PRSI responsibilities to the State and to their own employees are disincentivised to do so and feel the full force of the law. That is why we want to reform this law with regard to the State's attitude to evasion and avoidance of PRSI. That is a matter to which we will return later.

In the same vein, one of the most critical aspects of this legislation is the need to define very clearly in primary law the characteristics of false, bogus or disguised self-employment. That is absolutely critical to the success of any legislative initiative that might be taken. Any mere administrative tinkering at the edges of this issue will not go far enough to deal with the problem. It should be the case that people's employment status is defined very clearly in law, although not by means of an exhaustive list. What I am proposing, which we will discuss later, is not an exhaustive list but a number of key tests with which the Minister and the Government will be familiar. These are the same key tests contained in the Competition (Amendment) Act 2017, which was developed by Senator Bacik, approved by both Houses, and enacted in the middle of 2017. The Minister, the Department, and the Government more broadly will therefore be very familiar with those particular tests.

In the Competition (Amendment) Act 2017 those tests only applied to certain categories of workers who were provided with exemptions from competition law for the purposes of collective bargaining, membership of trade unions and so on. We want those kinds of tests applied to the general population of workers.This should be a matter of law, not somebody's opinion or the understanding of what might be the contractual relationship. Nobody should have the opportunity to opt out of employment law coverage.

We are appealing to the Minister to allow the Bill to pass, although I know she has expressed her opposition to it and she has some concerns about the application of various provisions. In the interests of unity and given that there is a consensus in this House and across the political spectrum that the issue must be fundamentally dealt with one way or the other, I appeal to the Minister and her colleagues in Fine Gael not to block or oppose this Bill. I ask them to let it through so we can work with them to perfect this over a period. There is an urgency about this and the State is losing income hand over fist while workers are losing rights and benefits to which they should be entitled. That is simply not good enough. It is an egregious position. We worked on a cross-party basis in this Chamber and in the Dáil to develop the Employment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2018, which dealt with zero-hour contracts and low and variable hours work, so there is no reason we cannot work together in that same spirit to perfect this legislation, which should apply to the broad population of workers in this country for all the reasons I outlined.