Fiona O'Loughlin (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
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547. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the status of the Employment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2017. [26686/18]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The Employment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2017 was examined at the Select Committee on Employment Affairs and Social Protection on 17 May 2018 and passed Committee Stage in Dáil Éireann on that date. Report Stage of the Bill in the Dáil is scheduled for 26 and 27 June.

The Employment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill is an important piece of legislation. It contains a range of measures designed to improve the security and predictability of working hours for employees on insecure contracts and those working variable hours. It aims to do this by:

- Providing that employees are better informed about their terms of employment, particularly their core terms at an early stage - this includes much greater clarity about the hours they will be expected to work in a normal working day and a normal working week.

- Improved compensation for low-paid employees called in to work but sent home without the expected work.

- Introducing a Banded Hours provision for employees whose contracts of employment do not reflect the reality of the hours they have worked consistently over a 12 month reference period.

- Stronger anti-penalisation provisions for employees where they seek to exercise their rights under the Bill.

I will continue to work with colleagues on all sides of the House to progress this Bill as expeditiously as possible so that we deliver legislation that is fair, balanced and that works in practice.