Are there any time limits on contributions?
Worker Protection (Regular Part-Time Employees) Act, 1991 (Social Welfare Regulations) Order, 1991: Motion.
No, I understand there will just be a couple of contributors.
I move:
That Seanad Éireann approves the following Order in draft:
Worker Protection (Regular Part-Time Employees) Act, 1991 (Social Welfare Regulations) Order, 1991,
a copy of which Order in draft was laid before Seanad Éireann on 23rd May, 1991.
On 6 April 1991, the Worker Protection (Regular Part-Time Employees) Act, 1991, came into force in respect of rights under the Unfair Dismissals Act, 1977, the Minimum Notice and Terms of Employment Acts, 1973 and 1984, the Worker Participation (State Enterprises) Acts, 1977 and 1988, and the Holidays (Employees) Act, 1973. The Act is also designed to extend rights under the Redundancy Payments Acts, 1967 to 1970, the Protection of Employees (Employers' Insolvency) Acts, 1984 and 1990 and the Maternity Protection of Employees Act, 1981, to regular part-time workers. These provisions have not yet come into force due to the fact that the scope of these three Acts is partly defined by reference to employment which is insurable for benefits under social welfare legislation. The social welfare regulations specified in section 1(1), a(i), f(i) and (g) of the 1991 Act have been rendered out-of-date by the Social Welfare (Subsidiary Employments) Regulations, 1991 (S.I. No. 73 of 1991) and the Social Welfare (Employment of Inconsiderable Extended (No.2) Regulations, 1991 (S.I. No. 72) of 1991.
The draft order before the House will allow the remaining provisions of the Act to come into force by prescribing the updated social welfare regulations for the purposes of these paragraphs.
A copy of the draft order was laid before Dáil and Seanad Éireann on 23 May 1991. The draft order requires the prior approval of each House of the Oireachtas by way of affirmative resolution and I request Seanad Éireann to express such approval. It is a simple order updating the Worker Protection (Regular Part-Time Employees) Act, 1991, to take it into line with the changes that were made subsequently in the social insurance legislation. We agreed in this House that whenever there were changes like this they would be done by affirmative resolution. It is just a technical matter to bring the Worker Protection Act of 1991 into force in respect of rights not yet brought in.
We have no problem in relation to the Worker Protection (Regular Part-Time Employees) Act, 1991. As the Minister stated, it is simply a regulating business having to do with the rights of part-time workers under unfair dismissals and to extend these rights in the redundancy sector. The draft order requires that it be sent to the Oireachtas. It is effectively ensuring that social welfare provisions are made available for part-time workers, and I support it.
I want to welcome the Minister again to the House. The order before the House is an indication of the very progressive attitude the Minister has adopted to industrial relations in general. The order relates to workers who are normally expected to work for at least eight hours a week and complete 13 weeks continuous service with an employer. It will ensure that those employees will enjoy the same protection as full-time workers. It is evidence of the excellence and whole attitude of the Minister for Labour. It is about the fourth or fifth time we have discussed part-time employees in this House, apart altogether from all the other labour legislation that we have dealt with over the past couple of years.
It is no harm to refresh our minds in relation to part-time workers and the fact that for the first time they will be entitled to claim weekly payments from the Department of Social Welfare because of illness, unemployment or for maternity purposes. Part-time work, for a variety of reasons, is a fact of life in the present day situation. As has been mentioned, in 1989 the number of registered part-time workers was in the region of 82,000. Many of those people would have been working out of necessity. Many would be working part-time because it suited them. Housewives, for instance, may only be available for work in the evenings.
A very important sector that we are inclined to overlook are women who have fulfilled the very important function of rearing a family. They would have been in full-time employment at one time but gave up that employment in order to rear the family. Now that the nest is empty and all the family reared, they find themselves with a tremendous amount of time on their hands. For one reason or another they feel isolated and they feel lonely. It is time we paid a very special tribute to those people and afforded them the opportunity to get back into the work-force. Those of us who have full schedules and who are on the go every day do not fully appreciate the trauma and feeling of being no longer needed that many of those people have. They are excellent and they have enormous contributions to make to society and to the workplace for the benefit of all. They must be given the opportunity to return to the workplace and one very important factor in encouraging them back into the workplace is the availability of part-time work.
The excellent return to work schemes that are on offer through FÁS afford many of them the opportunity to refresh their talents and come back into the workplace. Part-time employees should not be expected to work for a pittance. They are entitled to a fair day's wages for a fair day's work. As the Minister once said there are employers who know that people need money badly for different reasons and are inclined to be unscrupulous in their attitude towards those people. The new order will overcome all those difficulties and protect all part-time workers. That is an excellent development. Employers from here on will have to be very careful in relation to the type of money they offer people. I do not think they can intimidate people any longer into working all hours. It was said that you could have a part-time worker who was working for 15 years and then at the whim of an employer, for whatever reason, that person could be dismissed. That cannot happen any longer.
I appeal to all part-time employees to register and to realise that they have this protection and that they are now covered by exactly the same protection as full-time employees and they should use the mechanisms that are there. They have the facility of all the tribunals that are there for the benefit of full-time employees and that is right. Many employers work through the black economy and there is a type of intimidation of people to discourage them from reporting grievances.
There are certain industries, and I do not want to be specific, who operate with a kind of slave labour as far as wages are concerned. The work their employees are required to do is unbelievable. There are instances of people being paid 80p an hour or something like that. That is absolutely ridiculous in this day and age. I appeal to all part-time employees to realise this. It is very important that it is brought home to them that they have rights. The Minister has set about regularising all the mechanisms so that part-time workers can have the protection of the law. The law is there and if an employer breaks it then he is liable under the law. It is very important that we outline the position in relation to that. Under the new legislation part-time employees will now have the benefit of the Redundancy Payments Act. They will have the benefit of the Minimum Notice and Terms of Employment Acts, the Worker Participation (State Enterprises) Act, the Unfair Dismissals Act, Maternity Protection of Employees Act, the Protection of Employees (Employers' Insolvency) Acts, and the new order before us is in relation to social welfare. It is a welcome development and I congratulate the Minister on bringing it before the House. I compliment him on his attitude in the whole area of industrial relations.
I welcome the legislation before the House today. I congratulate the Minister. Over the last number of years, the Minister for Labour, Deputy Ahern, has put through many pieces of good legislation with regard to the protection of workers. The Order before us today is a further piece of legislation that will be most welcome. As Senator McKenna said, part-time workers had no protection whatsoever for many years. This has now been remedied by the Minister and it is welcomed throughout the country. I hope that further legislation will be forthcoming from the Minister in the future.
I want to thank the Leader of the House and Senators Staunton and McKenna for their contributions. It is just a minor technical change but it will be beneficial to a number of part-time workers who now have the full benefits under the Acts, as I outlined. The affirmative order process is slightly cumbersome but it is important that we do it because there are a number of people who are entitled to these benefits and who cannot be facilitated until we have passed the order. I want to thank the House for its co-operation in getting this order passed so that we can go ahead with the administrative process.
Question put and agreed to.
This motion has been passed quickly. The next business is the matter on the Adjournment. There is some difficulty because the Minister is in the other House and Senator Cosgrave would not have expected us to be ready for her at this time. We will give her a few moments as a matter of courtesy.
Sitting suspended at 10.55 a.m. and resumed at 11 a.m.
When is it proposed to sit again?
At 2.30 p.m. on Wednesday, 9 June.