Employers prepare to battle on "inflexible" working hours Bill

EMPLOYERS and their representative organisations believe that Minister of State for Labour Affairs, Ms Eithne Fitzgerald, is introducing an "inflexible" version of the EU working hours directive into Irish law.

They claim the directive, which will impose a maximum net 48 hour working week, allows governments enter into national law versions which allow significantly more flexibility than that contained in the Organisation of Working Time Bill, drafted under Ms Fitzgerald's direction.

What is causing most upset is the decision not to take advantage of the "opt out" clause in the directive, whereby employees can volunteer to work more than the maximum 48 hours a week.

The Fianna Fail spokeswoman on enterprise and employment Ms Mary O'Rourke says her party wants to see the Bill amended to include the voluntary opt out clause.

"The rights of workers have to include the right to work overtime," she says.

"It is totally incomprehensible, that the Minister would introduce legislation which would have a negative impact on the weekly wage of an employee," says the Fianna Fail spokesman on labour affairs, Mr Tom Kitt.

Employers are hoping that lobbying of Ministers and backbench TDs will convince the Government to accept Opposition amendments to the Bill during its passage through the Oireachtas.

However, it is suspected that when all the EU member states have incorporated the directive into "national law, Britain will be the only one to include the optout clause.

"The approach being taken by Labour Affairs Minister, Eithne Fitzgerald, is nothing short of scandalous and will condemn an even greater number of people to the dole queues, a spokeswoman for the Small Firms' Association has said.

"The Government's approach will damage our competitiveness," says Ms Aileen O'Donoghue, of the Irish Business and Employers Confederation (IBEC).

"If the Government had no choice then there would be little we could do, but it does have a choice and so the decision is inexplicable to us," she says.

The Irish Small and Medium Enterprises Association said it "does not understand why Minister Fitzgerald is attempting to limit workers' earnings".

It would seem that low paid service sectors, such as the private security industry, are likely to be the one's most affected by the law.

Mr Eamon Hudson, managing director of Group 4 Securitas (Irl) Ltd, says the pending legislation is not just an employers' issue "Our staff are very concerned about the implications of this Bill."

His company employs more than 500 people in the security sector. "Our employees have quite a good standard of living and this will endanger that substantially."

However, Ms Fitzgerald says most companies, when they examine the flexibility available in the Bill, will find they are not adversely affected. The 48 hours limit is a net figure it does not include lunch and rest breaks - and it can be worked out over four months, six months or even 12 months if all the workers agree.

Most companies, when they become familiar with the legislation, will find they can operate within it, she says, and she estimates that as few as "between one and 2 per cent" of the labour force will be affected by the measure.

Earlier estimates had put the number of people likely to be affected at 6 per cent. The type of employment likely to be affected by the measure - mostly in the services sector - is one that is likely to see growth in coming years. Whether that is an argument for or against "flexibility" depends to a large extent on a person's attitude towards the law in general.

Ms Fitzgerald has said the opt outs clause would lead to "undue pressure" being put on individual employees. It would be "very much against our tradition of free collective agreement" and the spirit of collective partnership.

The ICTU's industrial officer, Mr Tom Wall, said "unions will be prepared to conclude agreements with employers which ensure necessary flexibility".

Employers representatives have said the implication that significant numbers of workers are being forced into working lengthy hours on an ongoing basis is one they reject.

The Bill published last Thursday by Ms Fitzgerald also covers stipulated rest intervals, minimum annual leave, zero hours contracts and increased protection for part time and Sunday workers.

It will also make it law that a employer must take into account an, employee's family responsibilities, when deciding when annual leave should be granted.