Congress General Secretary Patricia King has responded to the December 7 publication of the Employment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2017, saying:
'this Bill is by no means perfect and certainly requires amendments, but marks some progress on these very important issues for workers.
'the ICTU will lobby hard to achieve amendments to this Bill to meet the demands of the workers who are affected by insecure and precarious work. It appears from the provisions of the Bill that the prohibition of zero hour contracts excludes casual workers. It is our view that all workers should be covered by this prohibition.
'the provision to pay a worker required to report for work a minimum of 3 hours, whether they are required to work or not, is in line with the UL Review, however the minimum payment for such hours, in our view should be at the appropriate hourly rate rather than the National Minimum Wage/ERO rate as stipulated in the Bill.
'the provisions relating to Banded Hours need to be strengthened to ensure that workers are not penalised for invoking their rights under this legislation.
'the provisions of the Bill to provide and inform employees of their core employment terms including the length of an employee's normal working day or week are positive and more in line with the current EU Directive on these matters," Ms. King concluded.
