Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 2 Jun 1994

Vol. 443 No. 6

Written Answers. - Contract Workers.

Noel Ahern

Question:

48 Mr. N. Ahern asked the Minister for Enterprise and Employment the estimated number of contract workers in the country; the proposals, if any, he has to bring in employment protection legislation for such workers who currently have no such rights and no entitlement to maternity, sickness or other such benefits.

Minister for Enterprise and Employment (Mr. Quinn)

I should mention that the administration of maternity legislation is appropriate to the Department of Equality and Law Reform, that the question of entitlements to sickness and maternity benefits is appropriate to the Department of Social Welfare and my reply does not relate to these areas.

The term contract worker may be interpreted as referring to a number of different categories of workers, some of whom are employees and some of whom are self-employed. The OSO does not publish statistics relating to the numbers or categories of such workers.

In general, employment protection legislation applies to employees, that is persons who are employed under a contract of service or apprenticeship, including persons employed on fixed term contracts and persons employed on contracts for a specified purpose. For the most part persons working under a contract for services do not come within the scope of labour protection legislation by virtue of the fact that they are not employees. Such persons enjoy a significant degree of autonomy in deciding such matters as their particular hours of work and holiday breaks.

In general, labour laws attempt only to regulate employer-employee relationships and do not extend to self-employment. I do not consider that changes need to be made in labour law to protect individuals who may be self-employed. If the contract offered to and accepted by the individual is one of self-employment then the existing enactments of labour law intended for the protection of employees are not appropriate. However, I would point out to the Deputy that all workers, whether self-employed or otherwise, are fully protected in so far as occupational safety and health at the worksite is concerned by the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act, 1989 and its associated regulations.