Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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91. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation his plans to amend the Protection of Employees (Part-Time) Work Act 2001, and any other relevant employment legislation, to enable part-time workers to request full-time work and contracts. [18876/15]

Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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Ireland’s robust suite of employment rights legislation contains strong safeguards for part-time workers.

The Protection of Employees (Part-Time Work) Act 2001 implemented EU Council Directive 97/81/EC into Irish law. The purpose of the Directive was to implement the Framework Agreement on part-time work concluded by the European cross-industry organisations UNICE, CEEP and the ETUC. The Act provides a wide degree of protection for part-time employees, including the general protection that a part-time employee shall not be treated in a less favourable manner in respect of his/her conditions of employment than a full time employee.

Section 13(5) of the 2001 Act contained provisions in relation to the preparation and publishing of a Code of Practice by the Labour Relations Commission in relation to the steps that could be taken by employers for the purposes of Clause 5.3 of the Framework Agreement. Clause 5.3 of the Framework Agreement provided that, as far as possible, an employer should give consideration to a request by workers to transfer from full-time work to part-time and vice-versa. The Labour Relations Commission prepared this Code of Practice, based on the provisions in Section 13 of the 2001 Act, following consultation with the social partners. It was deemed to be a Code of Practice and implemented, in 2006, by the Industrial Relations Act 1990 (Code of Practice on Access to Part-Time Working) (Declaration) Order 2006 (S.I. No. 8 of 2006). Under Section 42(4) of the Industrial Relations Act 1990, the Code is admissible in evidence in any proceedings before a Court, the Labour Court, the Labour Relations Commission, the Employment Appeals Tribunal or the Equality Tribunal.

The Protection of Employees (Fixed-Term Work) Act 2003 provides that fixed-term employees may not be treated less favourably than comparable permanent employees, unless the employer can objectively justify the different treatment. Any justification offered cannot be connected with the fact that the employee is on a fixed-term contract.

The 2003 Act also establishes a framework to prevent abuses arising from the use of successive fixed-term employment contracts. The Act provides that where an employee has been on two or more continuous fixed-term contracts, the total duration of those contracts may not exceed four years. After this, if the employer wishes to renew the employee’s contract, it must be an open-ended contract unless there are objective grounds justifying the renewal of the contract for a fixed term only.

The Unfair Dismissal Act 1977 as amended contains a provision aimed at ensuring that successive temporary contracts are not used in order to avoid that legislation. It provides that where a fixed-term or specified-purpose contract expires and the individual is re-employed within 3 months, the individual is deemed to have continuous service for the purposes of that Act.

I have no plans at this time to amend these provisions.