SIPTU representatives have stated that the publication today (Thursday, 7th December) of the Employment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2017 is a step in the right direction but that the proposed legislation requires further amendment in order to provide adequate protections against precarious work practices. SIPTU Services Division Organiser, Ethel Buckley, said: “While there are positive aspects to these proposals more must be done to protect workers against the rapid expansion in precarious work practices. SIPTU is focused on this issue because it affects a growing number of workers. “As part of our Fighting for the Future of Work campaign our members are calling for a remedial social statute which will put right the social wrong of precarious work and provide workers with an entitlement to security of hours.” She added: “Together with ICTU, we are campaigning for amendments to this Bill so that the scope of its ban on zero hours contracts is widened to protect all workers and so that minimum call-in payments are fairly calculated. Its provisions in relation to banded hours arrangements will also have to be enhanced. “The legislation that is ultimately enacted needs to be effective in significantly ameliorating the negative effect on workers and their families of zero hours contracts and if and when contracts. We must ensure the final legislation does provide vulnerable workers with a right to security in their working lives.”
SIPTU says proposed new working hours legalisation needs to be improved
