Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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309. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the steps he is taking in response to working conditions being unilaterally changed by workers employed to fulfil orders for a retailer (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23117/23]

Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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Contractual terms of employment are a matter for agreement between the parties to the contract. Whilst it would not be appropriate for me to comment on the particulars of proposed changes to employment contracts within a company, I would note that any alterations must comply with our existing suite of employment legislation including the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977 and the Payment of Wages Act 1991.

The Terms of Employment (Information) Act 1994 transposed Directive 91/533/EEC concerning an employer's obligation to inform employees of the conditions applicable to the contract or employment relationship. The Act provides that an employer must provide its employee with a written statement of the particulars of the employee’s terms of employment. Included amongst those particulars are the terms or conditions relating to hours of work, such as overtime.

The Directive was updated in 2019 by the Transparent and Predictable Working Conditions Directive, which was transposed in Ireland by the European Union (Transparent and Predictable Working Conditions) Regulations 2022. These Regulations introduced new protections including reducing the amount of time that an employer must take to notify an employee of the nature and date of any change to the particulars contained in the written statement.

Other changes introduced last year include the right to know in a reasonable period in advance when work will take place – that is, for workers with unpredictable working schedules, such as for on-demand work and the right for employees to request a transfer to a form of employment with more predictable and secure working conditions, where it is available. The Act provides a right of complaint to the Workplace Relations Commission.

More generally, it is important to emphasise that responsibility for the resolution of industrial disputes between employers and workers rests in the first instance with the employer, the workers and their representatives. The State provides the industrial relations dispute settlement mechanisms to support parties in their efforts to resolve their differences.