Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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360. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the approximate date when she will publish the heads of the terms of employment (information) (amendment) and organisation of working time (amendment) Bill 2016 proposals regarding protections for workers on insecure, low-hour contracts; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [12679/17]

Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael)
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 My colleague, Minister Mitchell O’Connor, and I intend to bring forward proposals in this area for consideration by Government. In this respect, work has progressed well on developing a policy response to the Programme for Government commitment to address the increased casualisation of work and to strengthen the regulation of precarious employment. We intend to include protections aimed particularly at low-paid, more vulnerable workers. Our proposals will address the issue of employees on low hour contracts who consistently work more hours each week but whose contracts do not reflect the reality of their hours worked. The proposals will also seek to ensure that employees are better informed about the nature of their employment arrangements and their core terms at an early stage in their employment.

The policy response is being informed by the University of Limerick study on zero hour contracts and low hour contracts as well as the extensive material and practical examples provided by respondents to the public consultation conducted by my Department.

Developing policy proposals in this area is a complex matter. A balance needs to be found between protecting the rights of employees and avoiding unintended consequences on business which may negatively affect the competitiveness of the Irish economy. 

My Department engaged in an intensive dialogue process with ICTU and IBEC in an effort to secure broad agreement before finalising proposals. The intention now is to submit our proposals to Government in Q1 2017 for consideration and approval to draft a Bill giving effect to those proposals. I envisage that the proposed legislation would, subject to Government approval, be published as a matter of priority once a Bill is drafted.