Over 130 Oireachtas members and almost 200 local authority councillors have pledged support to the Irish Congress of Trade Unions Charter for Fair Conditions of Employment, according to ICTU’s submission to the consultation process on low-hour contracts.
The consultation process was established following publication of a University of Limerick investigation of the prevalence of zero-hours, low-hours and so-called "if-and-when" contracts, which provide no certainty regarding working hours or income.
The report's recommendations included minimum three-hour blocks of work, time-and-a-half where workers do not get 72 hours notice of working time, and that they should be paid where work is cancelled with less than 72 hours notice.
In the Congress submission, Industrial Officer Liam Berney said that the UL report broadly reflected the Congress position on such contracts, describing it as "timely".
He noted that last April, Congress launched the Charter for Fair Conditions of Employment which includes a campaign for a system of fair hours of work for every worker.
It planned to ask politicians to pledge their support for the Charter ahead of the election, and to reveal the names of those who did and did not.
It stated that as of 7 December, when the submission was written, "over 130" members of the Oireachtas had pledged support for the Charter, with the Seanad passing a motion backing it.
As of the same date, "close to 200" local authority councillors had supported it, and "at least six" local authorities had passed motions of support.
In the document, Mr Berney said that this indicated strong support for a change in the regulation of working time to better protect the position of workers.
ICTU called for further consideration of the employment of people employed on so-called "if and when" contracts which provide no certainty of working hours or income.
It wants the law amended to provide every person with a guaranteed minimum number of working hours.
A spokesperson said that ICTU would publish the full list of who had supported and who had declined to support it in a couple of weeks, after consideration by the ICTU executive council.
It is understood there were 46 submissions to the consultation process by last Monday's deadline.
A number of employer groups, including IBEC, ISME, and the Restaurants Association of Ireland, warned against any legislative change to provide more certainty for workers, saying it could add to the cost base of running businesses.
They also noted that while employers needed flexibility to cope with seasonal and variable workloads, many employees also wanted flexible working.
The Department of Education and Skills also warned that the recommendations of the UL report could make it significantly more expensive to hire substitute teachers at short notice.
