Proposals to implement part-time work Directive published

A bill aimed at implementing the 1997 EU Directive on part-time workers was introduced into the Irish parliament in December 2000.

The Irish government has finally acted to implement the EU Directive on part-time work into national legislation, by publishing the necessary primary legislation in December 2000. Council Directive 97/81/EC of 15 December 1997 (EU9712175N) implements the framework agreement on part-time work concluded in June 1997 by the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), the Union of Industrial and Employers' Confederations of Europe (UNICE) and the European Centre of Enterprises with Public Participation and of Enterprises of General Economic Interest (CEEP) (EU9706131F).

The Directive requires implementation by the Member States by 20 January 2000 (with a maximum of one more year, if necessary, to take account of special difficulties). A clause of Ireland's current national agreement, the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness (PPF) (IE0003149F), had promised that the implementing bill would be published by June 2000, but it took several months longer than had been anticipated.

The bill closely follows the wording of the original European social partner agreement in establishing a right for part-time workers not to be treated less favourably than "comparable" full-time workers, unless different treatment can be justified "on objective grounds". The Directive allows Member States the scope to define what these "objective grounds" are, and the Irish government has defined these as grounds "based on considerations other than the status of the employee concerned as a part-time employee and the less favourable treatment which it involves for that employee is for the purpose of achieving a legitimate objective of the employer and such treatment is appropriate and necessary for that purpose"

The existing Irish legislation for the protection of part-time workers, which dates from 1991, would be repealed by the proposed new law. The 1991 legislation had established access to employment protection legislation for part-time workers who worked over eight hours per week. The eight-hour limit is eliminated in the new bill, with the exception of pension rights, in which part-timers under the threshold can still be treated less favourably. The reasoning behind this is that, for workers with such low weekly earnings, the administrative cost to the employer outweighs any benefit these workers would be able to derive from a pension. The EU Directive allows access to particular conditions of employment to be made subject to "a period of service, time worked or earnings qualification"– provided that the exclusion can be justified on objective grounds. However, some trade union sources feel that the proposed eight-hour threshold for pension rights may not be objectively justifiable.

The Irish government has also availed of its ability under the Directive to apply the right to equal treatment in a less rigorous way to casual workers. However, as a safeguard, it has given the employment minister the right to move certain groups of casual workers under the full protections available to contracted part-time workers, as he or she sees fit.