Ireland: government unveils bill to ban zero-hour contracts

Ireland’s centre-right government plans to ban zero-hour contracts, which offer no guarantee of a salary or working time, at the start of 2018. To this end, the Employment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2017 was presented at the Irish assembly (Dáil) on 7 December. As had been previously announced, the bill also includes various measures to regulate precarious employment, a phenomenon that has developed remarkably in recent years, according to the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU).
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“The key objective of the bill is to improve the security and predictability of working hours for employees on insecure contracts and those working variable hours,” Regina Doherty, Employment Affairs and Social Protection Minister, explained. The flagship measure of the Employment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2017, which could come into force at the start of 2018, seeks to wipe out controversial zero-hour contracts. These contracts, which provide no guarantee of a salary nor of working time

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