Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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95. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if he will amend the Employment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2018 to prevent employers from treating the upper range of banded hours as a cap when additional hours are being distributed (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9249/23]

Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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The Employment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2018, came into force on 4 March 2019. This Act introduced a number of measures to strengthen employee rights and to address the problems caused by the increased casualisation of work.

Among these measures was the introduction of a 'band of hours' system which strengthens the regulation of precarious work by improving the security and predictability of hours of work for those on insecure contracts and those working variable hours.

The banded hours provisions of the Employment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2018 do not 'treat the upper range of banded hours as a cap' or prevent increases in the number of hours an employee works. On the contrary, the Act increases security for workers. Should the increased hours continue for a period of time the employee may request to be placed on a higher band of hours after a sufficient reference period is met.

I would also like to assure the Deputy that my Department closely monitors relevant case law from the Workplace Relations Commission, Labour Court and High Court to keep Ireland’s extensive suite of employment rights legislation current and fit for purpose.

As Minister, I have written to the WRC requesting that they review both the Code of Practice on Part Time Workand the Employment Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2018to assess the overall effectiveness of the suite of protections for Part Time Workers. It is timely that a comprehensive review of both the Code and the Act of 2018 is now carried out.