Gerald Nash (Labour) | Oireachtas source

In all my consideration of these matters over the years, I always felt it was appropriate and I know the trade union movement - Connect, SIPTU and many others - are adamant that a route to the WRC is required where an complaint can be made and an adjudication officer can consider it based on the tests we are applying through this legislation and make a determination on somebody's employment status. That is not to the exclusion of the role played by the Scope section regarding insurability, which is a separate but related matter. I would be interested in hearing the Minister's view on that. I know her view on that from her reply to me on Second Stage. Employers and trade unions are familiar with the WRC processes. There is a significant amount of trust and confidence in the industrial relations machinery of the State to manage and get these matters right and trust in its independence and status in terms of managing issues like this so it is entirely appropriate that the WRC would have a function. I hope this Bill gets to Report Stage. It would be my intention to amend this section further in a number of different ways to enhance it and make sure that the WRC can expedite cases because, in reality, we are dealing with workers in real-time situations who need a determination of their employment status very quickly because of their inability to access benefits because they may be considered to be self-employed, albeit bogusly self-employed, and the fact that as self-employed individuals, as some would have it, they are not entitled to be represented by a trade union. I strongly believe that any legislative solution to this broad problem requires the use of the WRC and its capacity to deal with cases and to have cases referred to it for determination on employment status.