Question No. 52 is in the name of Deputy Bríd Smith. Permission has been given to Deputy Gino Kenny to take the question in the House.
Tuesday, 16 May 2017
Ceisteanna (52)
Freagraí ó Béal (16 píosaí cainte)
Bríd Smith
Ceist:52. Deputy Bríd Smith asked the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if she will consider supporting the Banded Hours Contract Bill 2016 currently undergoing scrutiny on Committee Stage rather than introducing a draft proposal of her own that seems to deal with the same issues of low hours and precarious hours contracts; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [23045/17]
Amharc ar fhreagra
Will the Minister consider supporting the Banded Hours Contract Bill 2016 currently undergoing scrutiny on Committee Stage rather than introducing a draft proposal of her own?
I am not in a position to support the Banded Hours Contract Bill 2016 for the reasons my colleague, the Minister, Deputy Mitchell O'Connor, and myself explained during the Second Stage debate on that Bill last summer. In summary, the Bill as drafted is flawed, lacks balance and does not achieve its stated aim. Moreover, it would have very significant adverse consequences for employers' rights across the economy, including job losses.
In contrast, the draft legislative proposals approved recently by Government for priority drafting are balanced and focused in particular on low-paid and more vulnerable workers. They are in response to a specific commitment in the programme for Government. The proposals address a number of key issues which have been identified as being areas in which current employment rights legislation can be strengthened to benefit the employees without imposing unnecessarily onerous burdens on employers and businesses. These are not comprehended by the Private Member's Bill.
The Government's proposals are the result of extensive consultations, including the public consultation by my Department following the University of Limerick study on zero-hour contracts and low-hour contracts. They also encompass a detailed dialogue process with ICTU and IBEC over a period of several months.
I am referring the draft legislation to the Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation for the committee to consider and determine if it wishes to engage in pre-legislative scrutiny of the proposed Bill.
I am slightly puzzled as to why Fine Gael opposes the Sinn Féin Banded Hours Contract Bill 2016. What the Minister has said is that a similar proposal is being drafted currently. In the era of new politics - much is made of that around here - this is old politics. It is actually quite cynical. I understand that the Bill is going through pre-legislative scrutiny currently. However, it is being grounded by the vested interests of the employers' groups. Where I am from, there are a lot of people on low pay and doing very insecure work. It is imperative that a Bill copperfastens workers' rights, particularly in the low-pay sector. It is up to the Minister of State to support Deputy Cullinane's Bill. It is quite a good Bill, though in some ways it does not go far enough. It is imperative that the Government works with parties that it normally disagrees with in the age of new politics.
The Bill does not focus on low-paid vulnerable workers. Instead, it requires that all workers in every sector of the economy are given additional hours on request unless the employer can prove severe financial difficulties.
It does not.
The Bill itself entirely misses the point of banded hours. I will tell the Deputy about what it does not do and what the Government's Bill does. Our Bill ensures that workers are better informed about their core terms of employment at a very early stage. That is important for any employee taking on a job. It strengthens the existing minimum compensation provisions for low-paid workers who are called to work and are not provided with the work itself. The six-month reference period in the Sinn Féin Bill is far too short to take into account the normal peaks of businesses, including seasonal businesses as well. The six-month period would certainly produce a skewed result. The Bill requires that every employer in the country displays notices in their workplaces indicating the number of hours being allocated to workers. The Bill, in our view, does not deal with the range of issues that we have encompassed in our Bill. We are also prohibiting zero-hour contracts in most circumstances, which is not included in the Sinn Féin Bill. We are ensuring that workers on low-hour contracts who consistently work more hours each week than are provided for in their contracts are designated those hours. We have seen many examples in the past where workers are on 15-hour contracts but are working 40 hours or so per week. This will strengthen the employees.
Thank you.
I ask Deputy Gino Kenny to study our Bill when it is put together-----
The Minister of State has exceeded his time by one minute.
I think he will be satisfied enough that we are going to ensure that workers are protected.
I will study the Bill when it comes out. I ask the Minister of State not to take offence to this, but Fine Gael does not have a great track record on workers' rights in this country - far from it.
We create jobs.
The Minister of State should acknowledge that there are a lot of workers in this country who are extremely exploited and a lot of companies that are making vast profits from workers' labour. They are very vulnerable at the moment. Anything that copperfastens workers' rights will be welcomed. In the era of new politics, I believe Deputy Cullinane's Bill should be supported and not ground down.
I wish to express my disappointment with the Minister of State's response to Deputy Gino Kenny's contribution. I am involved in the jobs committee. We have been scrutinising Deputy Cullinane's Bill. We had a lot of representation from business organisations. The one thing that united them all is that they came in with no solution as to the problem we have. Deputy Kenny said it there as well. There are a lot of people in this country affected by this. It is not just the zero-hour contract but also the banded hours contract. I think the Minister of State misunderstood what banded hours means. The Bill is not asking for extra hours, it is asking for people to get the hours they actually work and for the hours to be defined. That would allow people to go to their local credit union and get a loan or probably even a mortgage because they would know exactly what hours they were working. I am very disappointed that the Government is not supporting that amendment.
Workers need to be protected. We have a huge problem in this country with people on low pay and precarious hours. People do not know what days they are working from one week to the next and cannot organise child care or get loans when they need them. The Bill has been scrutinised very strongly. We have been doing that for a number of months. We have had a balanced view in the last couple of weeks with the trade unions and USI having come before the committee. I believe the Bill is well-crafted and deserves to come back to the Dáil.
I ask both Deputies to hold back until they see the proposals in our Bill. I think they have seen most of them already. This is a carefully crafted Bill. It is good legislation.
It is a response to the UL study. It took a lot of time, in consultation with the unions and IBEC, to put it together. Sinn Féin's Bill is flawed and we will not put flawed legislation through the House. Employment legislation takes time to prepare. It is very hard to change legislation once it is in place. It is much easier to put a bit of work into and consult on it. There were 48 submissions after the UL study. This is good legislation and the response we have received from all sides has been very positive. We have heard very few concerns from employers about the banded hours we are proposing because the banded hours Bill will reflect the amount of time an employee has worked over an 18-month rather than a six-month period. It is more real and in the interests of the employee. We want to protect low-paid workers. That is the idea behind the legislation. It is to protect low-paid and vulnerable workers who have been abused in recent years. I ask Deputies to support our Bill when it is brought before the House.