Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 15 June 2021
147. Deputy Holly Cairns asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment his views on a report by organisations (details supplied) concerning employment conditions in Ireland; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30843/21]
View answerI welcome the publication of the report ‘Monitoring Decent Work in Ireland’ from the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission and the Economic and Social Research Institute. Research in this area is highly valuable for informing policy development. I take positives from this report such as employment rates growing for many of these groups over the period 2014 to 2019 as an indicator of a pre-pandemic baseline. I also note that there is still progress to be made in relation to challenges which young workers, people with disabilities, ethnic minorities, lone parents and those with lower educational attainment face when trying to access decent work, when compared to the general population.
One of the key lessons highlighted in the report is in relation to the need for robust and widespread disaggregated data in order to better understand equality in Ireland. There has been other recent work in this space with the publication of the report ‘Ireland's UN SDGs – Goal 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth, 2021’ which is the 8th in a series of publications from the Central Statistics Office monitoring how Ireland is progressing towards meeting its targets under the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) from the United Nations. This report was done in collaboration with my Department and provides indicators in relation to decent work, employment rights and policies, economic growth and infrastructure. Together with the work from the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission and ESRI report it will allow for better ongoing monitoring of Ireland’s current position on decent work.
My Department also continues to work to promote decent work by strengthening employment rights. Ireland has a comprehensive body of employment, equality and industrial relations legislation, in respect of which the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) is mandated to secure compliance. Ireland’s employment rights legislation protects all employees who are legally employed on an employer-employee basis. Therefore, once it is clear that a person is working under a contract of service, on a full-time or part-time basis, that person has the same protection under employment law as other employees. Employment rights legislation was strengthened by the addition of the Employment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2018 which prohibited zero-hour contracts except in the following circumstances:
- Where the work is of a casual nature;
- Where the work is done in emergency circumstances; or
- Short-term relief work to cover routine absences for the employer
My Department will continue to work on multiple aspects of decent work such as those outlined in the ESRI report: access to work; adequate earnings; employee voice; security and stability of work; equality of opportunity and treatment in employment; and health and safety. The Deputy will also be aware of Government commitments to progress a living wage and a statutory sick pay scheme.
