Nurses and teachers will be among the beneficiaries of legislation that limits the time employees have to stay on fixed-term contracts before getting a permanent job.
The Protection of Employees (Fixed-Term Work) Bill aims to ensure that such workers are treated as favourably as full-time employees and the Minister of State for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Mr Frank Fahey, said it would have a "major social impact" on the State's employment landscape.
The Bill will include pay and pension entitlements which will cost the Exchequer about €50 million a year, but Mr Fahey said "the economic and social benefits that will accrue" were "considerable".
It was being introduced as a "deliberate policy initiative" which means that "fixed-term workers should be treated in a similar manner to comparable permanent workers with immediate effect", said Mr Fahey.
Opposition parties generally welcomed the legislation, which transposes the EU directive on fixed-term workers into Irish law, but condemned the Government for the delay in its introduction, which resulted in the State being brought to the European Court of Justice.
Introducing the Bill, the Minister of State said that of the 1.7 million people in employment, 294,000 - or 17 per cent - are part-time workers and the majority are women. There are also some 70,000 people employed on a fixed-term basis where the contract is determined by a fixed-purpose or fixed-time.
The EU directive aims to ensure no discrimination against such workers, to remove it where it exists and to establish a framework to prevent abuse from the use of successive fixed-term employment contracts.
Mr Gerard Murphy (FG, Cork North-West), welcoming the legislation, said it would give an increased level of job security because "it gives employees protection and it will not cost a single job".
By allowing easier passage to permanent status, he said, workers "will receive a share of the benefits, duties and responsibilities of permanent employees. In this way, employers win and employees' rights are protected."
