Vol. 466 No. 4
254 Mr. N. Ahern asked the Minister for Enterprise and Employment the plans, if any, he has to introduce legislation to declare that employees who are continuously placed on a six months or 12 months contract basis will automatically become permanent employees with full rights after some specified period of continuous employment, for example two or three years. [11414/96]
I draw the Deputy's attention to the provisions of the Unfair Dismissals (Amendment) Act, 1993, which were intended to prevent employers using fixed term contracts to avoid liability under the unfair dismissals legislation. Under those provisions, where an employee's second or subsequent fixed-term contract — with no more than a three months break between contracts — is not renewed, the employee shall have the opportunity to have his employer's justification of the fixed term nature of the contract tested before a Rights Commissioner — the Employment Appeals Tribunal. Following such a test, if it emerges that the fixed term nature of the contract was designed to avoid obligations under the unfair dismissals legislation, then the Act will apply and the employee's service under the successive fixed term contracts will be deemed to be continuous. Where, however, the fixed term nature of the contract is shown to be justified by the employer, the employee's case fails and there is no entitlement to any redress.
