On Second Stage I referred to the increasing burden of work imposed on the Labour Court as a result of new legislation passed in this House in recent years and the extra legislation we have in prospect. There is the legislation on unfair dismissal, anti-discrimination and the equal pay legislation. There is also the equality of opportunity legislation which has already had a First Reading in this House. In addition, there is the burden imposed by the involvement of the court and its personnel in the arbitration bodies of the public service. All of these duties involve the court in additional work, and there has been a demand for some time now by those who use the court that the court be given an extra division in addition to the three already there.
The Bill before us gives us an opportunity to ensure that, parallel to the work we do for the agricultural worker, we also provide the court with an additional division. This legislation here adds to the workload of the court significantly. This is the largest number of workers to be covered by industrial legislation since the Labour Court was founded in 1946. Approximately 30,000 additional workers will now be dealt with under the common industrial legislation which applies to workers in towns and cities. This means additional work will be thrown onto the court itself and that is why I am looking for this fourth division.
The normal provisions as to the appointment of members of the court will operate in respect of this new division. Appointments will be made by myself, the workers' and employers' representatives being nominated by their respective organisations. That is the fundamental reason for this new division.
It was suggested this morning that we should give this extra division the responsibility of dealing solely with agricultural workers, but in my view this might not be the wisest thing to do. I would prefer to leave the court to make its own arrangements, to leave it the maximum flexibility in apportioning their various divisions to categories of workers as they see fit. This is a better system than nominating an extra division for particular work. In my opinion, the Oireachtas should interfere as little as possible in the actual operation of the court. Therefore, I would not be in agreement with that suggestion.
Although we are adding extra numbers of workers and there are exceptional conditions obtaining in agriculture which should be respected under the new joint labour committee arrangement, having workers and farm interests involved in its decisions will ensure that the decisions will relate closely to actual conditions in agriculture. I do not think we require the extra assurance that the court will need a division which will be solely concerned with agricultural workers.
Amendment No. 7 which amends section 2 of the Industrial Relations Act, 1969, and which describes the membership of the Labour Court, is consequential on my proposal in amendment No. 6 to take power to provide for the appointment by order of additional divisions of the court. This section requires modification in the light of the proposal to take enabling power to appoint additional divisions of the court.