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NEW ZEALAND HAS made headlines in recent weeks for passing new legislation to ban zero-hour contracts, a move heralded as the first of its kind in the developed world. Campaigners have long called for the practice to be abolished, saying such contracts exploit workers, but are we likely to see a change in legislation here?
Just under 90% of respondents to a poll on this site last month agreed that Ireland should follow New Zealand’s lead, with 7% disagreeing and 2% having no opinion. Although such polls are open to scrutiny on their accuracy and representative qualities, the findings do highlight the clear dislike and contempt towards zero-hour contracts held by many.
Is it time for Ireland to follow suit and scrap such contracts? Let’s take a look at the situation facing workers in Ireland.
What are zero-hour contracts?
This is quite a difficult question to provide a definitive answer, as there is no harmonised definition of zero-hour contracts from a European perspective. Most member states have their own wording that aligns with their domestic understanding and use of such legal agreements in their own respective countries.
This in itself is a major problem, as such lack of clarity on the intricacies of these complex agreements can provoke immediate consternation against their use, simply by mentioning the term “zero-hour contract”.
In a general sense, a true type of zero-hour contract, in its simplest form, is an agreement between an employer and employee, where there is zero obligation on either party, meaning there is in effect no obligation on the employer to provide work nor the employee to accept work. Such contracts or arrangements are also often referred to as “casual contracts”.
It is, however, more common in practice, and particularly in Ireland, for employers to guarantee at least a certain number of minimum hours per week to workers as opposed to guaranteeing none.
What rights do employees have?
Employees working under zero-hour type agreements are generally deemed to have the same employment law rights as permanent employees.
In reality, though, the unfavourable terms and conditions of such contracts can arguably be construed as unfair, due to their ad hoc nature leaving employees with little certainty regarding their hours of work and income security. This can have a stiffling effect on workers and their families from an economic, societal and psychological perspective.
Another common problem is that, even when certain protections are in place, many employers can utilise existing loopholes enshrined in current legislation to bypass worker safeguards.
For instance, in the Irish context, zero-hour contracts stem largely from the Organisation of Working Time Act, 1997-2012, section 18 of which states that employees operating under such contracts must make themselves available for work – in other words, they need to be on standby for the hours they are contracted for, despite no guarantees of getting actual work for those contracted hours.
Section 18 does afford some protection in the form of entitlements to some remuneration, even if the employee does not acquire the hours they are contracted for. This remuneration is based on either 25% of their contracted hours or 15 hours, whichever is less.
Section 18 will not, however, apply such protections where an employee has no hours guaranteed, as no obligation to accept work exists. For instance, a likely scenario could be an employee is offered 15 hours of work one week but only a mere seven hours the following week.
Despite such loopholes, Ireland still fares far better than most of its European counterparts as regards the protections afforded to workers operating under such contracts, particularly in the UK, which has seen a rapid proliferation of these type of employment arrangements.
Are zero-hour contracts justified?
Zero-hour contracts are equally as divisive in Ireland as in the UK when the issue of merit or justification is raised.
The business community has understandably far different views from the trade unions on this issue in general. For instance, many businesses argue from an overriding economic perspective that such contracts, albeit “not ideal”, do serve an economic necessity.
This is a particularly common argument in sectors where seasonal workers are prominent or for new start-ups, where flexible working hours for staff can be an invaluable asset in getting a business off the ground and saving on wasted capital.
Union representatives, however, argue more so from the societal standpoint, based on the alleged infringement of worker rights. Many trade unions deem such legal instruments as inherently unfair and exploitative in nature.
As is evident from recent collective bargaining talks, trade union representatives have also called for current loopholes to be closed and the introduction of more protective measures – limiting the length of time a position can be filled using such contracts or requiring employers to provide for longer notice periods to those on standby, for example.
What does the future hold for precarious workers?
A report published by former Minister for Business and Employment, Labour’s Ged Nash, in November 2015 expressed concern about the emergence of “if and when” contracts, where workers are not contractually required to make themselves available for work.
The report found that, while zero-hour contracts are not extensively used in Ireland, this other type of working arrangement, when used inappropriately, greatly undermines existing legislative protections and in particular remuneration entitlements as contained in Section 18.
A consultation was considered following this report with various stakeholders, such as employer and union representatives, to obtain feedback on its findings and recommendations.
However, given the fact former Minister Nash did not retain his Dáil seat at the recent general election, coupled with the uncertainty regarding the makeup of the next government, it is unclear when this consultation will now take place and whether policy in this area will change in the coming years.
The debate on zero-hour contracts will likely continue into the lifetime of the next government, whenever it is formed. The main challenge presented is to try and strike a fair balance between the competing economic interests of employers and the safeguarding of workers’ employment rights.
It is apparent from recent studies that Ireland is far from the bottom of the class in this regard when compared with other developed countries, which is positive. However, it will be key for the incoming government to quickly stem the growth of “if and when” contracts.
It remains unlikely that Ireland will follow New Zealand’s lead and be the first EU member state to ban zero-hour contracts, regardless of general public opinion, though. To do so would require the necessary political appetite to negotiate through the legal and policy wranglings of vested interest groups.
Jason O’ Sullivan is a solicitor and public affairs consultant at J.O.S Solicitors.
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What concerns people is that the government does not seem to have any intention to limit the number of people who can arrive into Ireland and claim asylum. We are a tiny country with an infrastructure which is already under severe strain and there is only so much we can do. Are we to accept 100k refugees each year forevermore? Being concerned that such a large number of people arriving into Ireland may cause further strain on our hospitals and schools is not racist, it’s simply common sense.
@Michael OKelly: thats one thing Michael and is a legitimate concern. But that is an issue for the government to sort out and we should out pressure on them to come up with a better plan. However, on a human level the treatment of people already here is disgusting. Surely our first instinct should be to help our fellow men and woman?
@Michael OKelly: well said Michael.people need to wake up, also it has to be concerning that all the refugees shown were men which seems to be the norm when they are dropped off at nighttime,
@Michael OKelly: where did you get that 100k figure from. Net immigration last year was circa 68k up massively from the 11k average in previous years due to the Ukrainian situation.
We’ve been trained to clap like performing seals when anyone mentions ‘diversity’. Which is surprising given it has the same root as ‘divide’ and ‘divisive’. Flooding a country with people of different races, religions, histories and beliefs was somehow, never explained how, to be our strength. Ruanda, former Yugoslavia and even up the road in Norn Iron suggest otherwise.
@Tony Murphy: I absolutely can’t stand people like you
@Tony Murphy: Yet ‘Flooding a country with people of different races, religions, histories and beliefs’ was exactly how the world’s richest and most powerful state came about.
@Tony Murphy: Maybe you’ve been trained, good boy, who’s a good boy?
@Joe Philips: can you give me an example of a place in the world where this has been successful?? Honest question.
Time for some one to shout stop , we can take a trickle of refugees not a flood , are there any politicians with a backbone to stand to this .
Apart from Ukraine is it not strange that the only people fleeing war and persecution from all these other countries are young men..No old men,,No old women,,No mother’s,,No children,,just these young men…All bused in which takes some organizing…
In this country anyone that expresses genuine concerns about mass,unvetted,non passport carrying, immigration is regarded as a right wing extremist who sleeps with a copy of Mein Kampf underneath their pillow.
Of course he is correct but it will continue. The authorities (or whatever they call themselves) need to get their act together. There is no control on this issue whatsoever.
Have the government forgotten the old whoever pays the piper calls the tune taxpayers have to fund this mess we are entitled to have a say in who we are paying for roll on elections
“Asylum seekers” more like economic illegal migrants for most of them.
The UN says there are now over 100 million refugees in the world.
There are probably 30-40 countries in the world they want to reach.
The ones in Clare are Algerian which is not at war and does not have an internal conflict. Not does it have direct flights to Ireland.Same as Georgia and Albania.
The government says it has no choice under international law but to house every asylum seeker who comes. I am an Irish worker citizen and taxpayer.
I didn’t ever vote for a government that says it has no power.
This whole thing is insanity and should stop now. The country is full. End of story.
@Gerry Kelly: All the country is full of is farm animals, there’s plenty of room.
@Gerry Kelly: far from full we used to have 8.5 million before we were emigrants and treated as pariah especially in the states on religious grounds. Sounds familiar at the moment.
@Aidan Maher: 8.5 million serfs who’s only food source led to 2 million being killed by a fungus, true heyday it was.
@Garret Fawl: “@Aidan Maher: 8.5 million serfs who’s only food source led to 2 million being killed by a fungus, true heyday it was.”
Do you miss the point or just not understand? I’m inclined to think the latter.
@Chutes: we had a population of 8.5 million when most irish lived in squalor, how is it comparable to now? 200 years ago, and yes the irish were vilified where they went. But ireland has been mostly welcoming thus far, immigration is being handled atrociously at the moment. If your only argument for immigration is sure we had 8 5 million people before the famine, then you don’t have much of an argument.
Sure you can’t control who lives beside you, what about arranging some refugee or social housing in Dalkey, Foxrock, Howth or Castleknock? It’s easy to say I care about asylum seekers and other vulnerable groups if there’s very little chance for them to live right beside your house.
Any genuine refugees should be looked after. Why are all refugees that were supposed to be placed in Inch are men? Most likely because women are extremely vulnerable in countries like Afghanistan and they will never get out. It’s also known that people often pay bribes to get out of their own country as asylum seekers to another country and many women are not financially independent in those countries. Sons of rich parents get out, those that need help the most stay stuck
Stop letting everyone in. We have enough. At this rate we’ll end up destroying our culture. Demographics is destiny.
Varadkar has to get a media headline every single day. I’m sick of looking at him.
@John Fahy: Sure his only the leader of our country,we should never hear from him.
It was fine while we could cater for refugees economic or otherwise but is it not worse and inhumane to invite them in when we can’t even provide for our own 11000 homeless men women and children.
@jp tobin: We can, we actively choose not to, there’s a difference.
Mary Fitzgerald, a FF senator selected by M Martin, said on newstalk this morning that this country has an obligation to take in people affected by climate and economic crises. This is new and not part of the current refugee policy. Is this official FF policy? What is the obligation? Clarity is needed for all on this, regardless of views or stance.
What is WRONG here is FFG housing policies over years of mis governance. These protests allow Leo and crew to ring hands while making sound bite statements but ignoring their responsibilities in creating this crisis.
The Irish government has failed its people due to poor health services, housing shortage, and unchecked vulture funds charging massive rates. Inaction has allowed right-wing nationalism to take hold. Nevertheless, compassion must still be shown towards asylum seekers. While limited resources exist in healthcare and housing, it is vital to remember that asylum seekers are not the cause. The government must allocate resources, create a fast-tracked process for those in need, and return those abusing the system. It’s time for a more just and equitable society for all.
“Nobody gets to say who can and cannot live in their area and we can’t have that kind of situation.” Varadkar has obviously never dealt with county councils when locals are looking for planning permission and get refused for the most ridiculous reasons.
Typical answer from a politician
Gov need to stop telling people their wrong, their opinions are wrong their thoughts are wrong etc, stop diminishing people, it’s not ok. Putting 69 men from another culture into a small country community of 54 population is horrific, that community fear they’ll be persecuted simple as, Gov can’t guarantee they won’t be. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know putting 69 single men together anywhere with nothing to do it’s a recipe for disaster. It was only a couple of weeks ago where we talked about male dominated defence force issues and they had a job to do to occupy themselves and keep them out of trouble yet it didn’t stop them abusing each other. It’s not ok, it’s madness and with barely any Gardai on a normal day I commend this community protecting themselves from the unknown.
@dottiemac: Isn’t the job of government to decide exactly that, what is considered allowable and what is not? How do you think we ended up with a legal system?
@Chutes: no its not cop on…its the people who decide….don’t forget its only the people who can change the constitution not the government….the ultimate ones to make the decision is the people and the government has gone rouge and treasonous for the last 100 years….
@William slevin: Nobody mentioned the Constitution. You can’t keep up at all can? Bless!
@Chutes: your not very bright but pretend to be…the constitution is the supreme law and controls the oireachtas on what the can legally pass…jeez you bring up the legal system….do you know where the legal system comes…I’ll tell you…the legal system comes from the Constitution…who controls the constitution the people…so cop on…your point to dottiemac was that its the government’s job to tell us what’s what and that the people are wrong…well no chutes you are wrong….its the people’s job to tell the government they are wrong…learn about what your talking about before you start spouting nonsense that the people should be told what to do by the government…its the government that should be doing what the people tell them to do….
Re your response about borders that just says it all…you don’t care about the integrity of this nation state and you say your a retired serving member of the defence forces…I’m glad your retired your a traitor to this nation blatantly seek to undermine the integrity of our nation state…
Treason…
Its only Leo’s opinion and this this time he’s wrong. Foisting a large group of foreign folk on a small community in rural Ireland is wrong and deep down he knows he’ll pay for his opinion at the next election. It like 2 fingers to rural Ireland.
They are being brought in on purpose to prop up the economy because Irish women are not having a sufficient amounts of kids. Look at projections for our aging society. Same in USA and UK…
@Paulco: ROFL! You think these ‘asylum seekers’ will boost the economy?? Lord help us all!
The Irish system is not prepared for diversity in terms of culture, work, places to live, etc. I am afraid the politicians are just passing the buck and doing what they are being told to do by Europe. A storm in the making in different places in Ireland.
Let’s stand up to racism by planting men from the middle east into rural ireland. FG 2023.
@Garret Fawl: How is it that you stand up to racism, list the ways for I’m sure there are many?
@Chutes: being concerned about immigration and being anti racist are not mutually exclusive. Humans can hold complex opinions and beliefs simultaneously, but the muppet show that is FG and the general discourse around this issue is only seen in black and white. Sure half the country is far right now, only a matter of time before we’re all goosestepping to seize power in the Dail in a coup.
Refugees are more than welcome here, as far as I’m concerned.
I’d happily swap out a few knuckle-draggers for them.
@Joe Philips: well done Joe how many have you taken or are you just toeing the party line to drown out people who have real concerns and issues why is our homeless list getting bigger every day and being ignored….
People are seeing all these ablebodied men well dressed who appear to be in the prime of life and a picture of health naturally they wonder whatbthe real story is how many countries they bypassed to get to us ,did they have passports and so on .People are not objecting so much to Ukrainians who are genuine refugees but the ayslum seekers and this International protection thing is what’s really bugging people . The cheek of the government who are keeping people in the dark and as good as saying to them ‘ Buzz off and mind ye’re own business, we are in control
@establishment loyalist fascist chutes:
Jeez your getting worse by the day….no you want open borders to the rest of the world…are you mad or what…were a tiny population…if we took in 10% of the world’s population in because I’m sure theirs that many would love to come here that’s 8 hundred million people….let say it was only 1% then that’s 80 million…even got to 0.5% that’s 40 million….the irish people would become 1/10 of the population and the other 9 all foreign born….are you nuts….that’s just pure crazy…
We need to stop mass immigration now in the last 20 years we’ve taken in 1 million….foreign born now account for 20% of our population that weren’t here 20 years ago…
@William slevin: Borders are just lines on a map, they hold no import for me. They are arbitrary and entirely fictional constructs of the powerful! You really can’t keep up at all can you?
In answer to why are so many men involved, men in the family usually flee first to try to establish themselves and send home money. it doesn’t take a genius to figure that out ffs!
@Chutes: this describes economical migrant not an asylum seeker. Asylum seekers are people who are in serious danger and are trying to save their lives by seeking refuge in a different country. It’s a bit different to just coming to the country that has a better standard of living so you can send money home. Asylum seekers can and do apply for protection as a family, there’s no need for a man to go on their own first
@Save Rainforest: Both needs are real, denying them is a waste of otherwise useful time. If they are fleeing war or economic migrants, I’m sure they have at very least their labour to offer in a country with full employment crying out for more workers to fill all the myriad caps.
I don’t care why they came, they all fled a shit situation! I doubt you’d voluntarily live where they came from.
People around here could do to stop being such negative dicks all the time imo and offer aid to those less fortunate or it’s all just an act.
All my personal opinion ofc, do what you will.
@Chutes: ok so, most third and second world countries should be abandoned and those people should be placed in Europe, America, Australia, etc.
Sure, that would work well
@Chutes: “stop being such negative dicks”, great social discourse there.
@Garret Fawl: I’m happy to engage with you should you wish, let’s see what you got!
@Save Rainforest: Whether you like it or not, as I have said, climate change will displace billions.
Where do you suggest they go? Doesn’t matter, they will go where they want regardless, in mass movements.
It can’t be stopped so deal with it as the reality of the times or just bury your head if you will.
Our own kind are homeless starving and dying.. but this government wants to being in more non nationals and not limit the amount.. this is ridiculous and will cripple the economy and create a massive influx of racism due to Irish being Hungary homeless and fed up
It’s time for a referendum on giving citizenship to anyone in the world that shows up in our country.
Are we back to using the term ‘migrant crisis’ again? Have we learned nothing?
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