Frances Black (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister. I am glad to be here to express my support for this important and timely legislation. I congratulate Senators Ardagh and Crowe on their hard work in respect of it. Deputy Conway-Walsh and others have tabled similar Bills in the Dáil. I hope this can be an area where a good idea is rewarded with cross-party support and swift passage through these Houses.

Legislation like this is long overdue in the age of online job hunting. Finding employment online has its benefits. People can access a much wider range of opportunities and go about their search in a more organised and systematic way. It also means that employers get a wider array of candidates to choose from. As anyone who has sought employment recently knows, however, the digitisation of job applications can also be burdensome. Job applications are becoming increasingly time-consuming. People are often made to enter information, which is readily available via their CVs, into portals designed by the employer. This results in much wasted time and duplicated effort. Multi-round interviews that require personality testing and work trials are also becoming more common. The ease of applying for jobs means that employers have to contend with larger numbers of candidates and have to thin the herd in order to make their hiring processes manageable. Workers also have to contend with the reality that their applications may be subject to screening by artificial intelligence programmes, which may discard their applications before they are even seen by a human.

I say this to highlight the fact that job applications are a major drain on workers' time. Their time should not be wasted by unscrupulous employers who do not disclose the pay they are going to offer successful candidates. Workers deserve to be able to make informed decisions about whether it is worth their time to apply for positions. Pay transparency is important because it also lets workers know their value. If workers can navigate a labour market that is adequately signposted by job advertisements with proposed salary ranges, they can correctly identify whether the offer being made to them is fair. This is particularly important for women workers who still contend with a gender pay gap. The Gender Pay Gap Information Act 2021 was a welcome step in tackling this issue. The Bill before us could really build on the work the Government has already done in this area. The Bill's prohibition on prospective employers asking workers about their previous pay is also very welcome. Workers who are building their careers should not be hamstrung by the low wages of their previous jobs. This practice reinforces existing disparities in income and frustrates efforts to create a more equitable labour market. This legislation will provide important safeguards to protect workers from being exploited.

I would like to understand the reason the Bill's provisions will only apply to employers with 50 or more employees. The CSO data from 2021 show that half of all workers work for firms which employ fewer than 50 people. That means this legislation, if enacted unamended, would only apply to roughly half of job postings. This would seriously undermine its effectiveness. I understand the concerns about burdening small enterprises with excessive regulations. Small firms may have more difficulty navigating regulations than larger firms with dedicated compliance and human resources departments. This legislation, however, is not particularly complicated. A public awareness campaign in collaboration with the trade unions and IBEC would be enough to inform workers and employers about the requirements of this legislation. I believe it is a mistake to limit the Bill's potential effectiveness so drastically and disproportionately because of these concerns. It is the responsibility of all employers, large and small, to treat workers fairly. The prospective employees of small firms should be able to avail of the benefits of this legislation.

I reiterate my support for this Bill and my congratulations again to everyone, in particular to Senator Ardagh, who has worked very hard on it. It has the potential to make the job-hunting process less stressful and time consuming and more fair. It would be a welcome safeguard for workers against unsavoury hiring practices that contribute to the race to the bottom in terms and conditions. I wish that its provisions might be extended across the entire labour market. I hope this Bill is progressed swiftly by the Government and that it will be open to amendments which would strengthen the Bill's positive impact.