Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge the history of the Bill. I was certainly not rewriting Sinn Féin's Private Member's Bill. To be clear, I do not think it was opposed on the grounds of money. I think there were some technical difficulties at the time in 2017 or 2018. In Senator Doherty's absence, I wish to mention that when she was the Minister with responsibility for social protection, she brought forward a Bill to replace and add to the Sinn Féin Bill. A lot of work was done on that on Committee Stage and in pre-legislative scrutiny in the autumn of 2019, before the general election of 2020, which fed into this Bill and put us into a position to progress the Bill. Everyone in the Chamber has played a part in this and I recognise that we do that as well.

It is a positive Bill for an important sector in this country. It is important that employees get their entitlements, which certainly should not be taken from them. I also acknowledge that the majority of employers do the right thing but, like any legislation we bring forward, this Bill deals with those who do not. For those who have been doing the right thing up to now, the Bill will not change much in how they operate.It will not change much in terms of how they operate, but those who are not will have to review their operations, and rightly so. We will deal with some more amendments later but I think we all agree with the main aims of this Bill. That is what the Tánaiste brought forward in February in Second Stage. He undertook to look at the concerns raised in this House. It was important that the legislation started in this House and continued the work of Senator Doherty. We will finish here, bring it to the Dáil and try to have it dealt with before the summer. That is what we are trying to do. I want to acknowledge and thank all involved for the agreement to work on this Bill to try to get it finished tonight. That will help to put this in place over the summer for those who are in the sector.

It is an important sector. I might get a chance to say more later on, but it is one I worked in for many years. I value my time in it. However, we have much to do in making it a career of choice and a long-term career where people can earn a good wage and support their families. The joint labour committee, JLC, method is one way of doing it. It was there in the past but has not been used. Like other sectors, I value the JLC.. We see the benefits of it with childcare. We should look an employment regulation order, ERO. We should also look at the training and supports. I made very clear here before that I am happy that my Department works with Department of Education, the Department of Social Protection and the industry to try to bring forward new initiatives to make this a very valuable sector.

There is much pressure there to fill vacancies. I would rather we did that with people who are already living in Ireland or certainly within the EU. At the moment, there is an awful lot of pressure to bring people in from beyond the EU to work in these roles. If we all put our minds together to bring forward initiatives, we should be able to deal with that through quality training, expertise and skills development, as well as recognising that the opportunity to use innovation in the sector to be able to deal with some of the roles. It is hard work and people are fully switched on. You are on your feet and fully switched on in the hospitality sector, similar to retail. We need to recognise that as well. That is why it is important that while we have the conversation on the minimum wage, we are on that journey to a living wage. That is something we will all agree with here. I am glad the Tánaiste has prioritised that in our work.

Similar to the Sick Leave Bill, this Bill is part of making sure that work always pays. In this case, it is to recognise that if you earn a tip or gratuity, that you get it and it is not taken off your wages. That is what this is about. To be very clear, it would prohibit employers from using tips and gratuities to make up contractual rates of pay. This ensures the tips and gratuities are additional to a worker’s contractual earnings. It also makes sure the key objective is that workers will be entitled to receive tips and gratuities paid in electronic forms, such as by debit or credit card, even though Senator Buttimer will still use cash. That is fair enough and I am the same as him. The Bill requires that these tips and gratuities should be distributed in a fair and transparent manner. If there is a dispute, the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, can adjudicate on whether the approach taken by an employer is fair and transparent. That piece is key. The WRC had observations on previous Bills and it was very clear and it fed into this one as well. That is why some of the amendments are trying to make sure the WRC can do its work to police this.

Lastly, the Bill will require businesses to clearly display their policy on how tips, gratuities and mandatory charges are distributed. This transparency is to the benefit of employees and customers and to the good employers who do it right.

I would have assumed, to be honest, having worked in the sector, that people knew that a service charge was not necessarily a tip or gratuity. I discovered during this Bill and over the past year’s debates on this that most people thought the opposite and assumed that it was a tip that the staff were getting. I am delighted and proud that this legislation is clarifying that. Having been in the sector, I knew what it was. However, I discovered the majority thought they were actually giving people a tip and recognising quality service. It is important that is clarified as well. I thank the Senators for the time. We have more amendments to go through, so I do not want hog it.