In this issue
Are you a social care worker?
Talks set to get going
Workers demand pay restoration equity
More lip service on gender equality
Under-funded councils face complex world
Templemore: IMPACT backs civilian roles
Zero hours move welcomed
by Lughan Deane
 

IMPACT has welcomed draft legislation that would see the controversial use of ‘zero-hour’ contracts banned. The proposed law, aimed at tackling precarious work practices, was informed by research from the University of Limerick and received Cabinet approval earlier this month.

The draft law would also curtail some of the worst abuses of precarious workers. For example, staff called into work unnecessarily would be entitled to be paid for at least three hours at three times the minimum wage.

Crucially, the proposals would also entitle workers to significantly more information on their employment situations. Employers would be forced to set out workers’ core terms and working hours within five days of the start of their employment. 

Employers who failed to share this information, or to comply with any other aspect of the proposed rules, would be guilty of a criminal offence.

ICTU general secretary Patricia King said much of the draft legislation was “quite positive.”

IMPACT welcomed cabinet’s decision to approve the draft. The union’s deputy general secretary, Kevin Callinan, said: “Zero-hours contracts annihilate workers’ ability to plan for the future. They introduce a destructive level of uncertainty into people’s financial planning, and any attempt to slow the spread of precarious work is to be welcomed.”

The draft legislation will now be referred to the Office of the Attorney General for priority drafting of a bill.

 

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