Officials from my Department's employment rights section have participated in five meetings of the European Commission's group of national experts on the implementation of the posting of workers directive since October 2003 when the group was first established. The group's mandate is to foster practical co-operation between EU member states regarding implementation of the directive. Further meetings of the group will take place during 2006. The contributions of the officials in question are informed by the provisions and experience of the operation of the directive and relevant Irish legislation providing for the enforcement of employment rights.
While there have been no formal complaints, from either posted workers or EU member state governments, regarding the treatment of workers posted to work here, nevertheless, my officials reported on the application of the directive in Ireland and, as and when required, completed questionnaires from the European Commission on this subject. In particular, my officials provided information to the group on how the directive would be enforced here by the labour inspectorate.
The group also agreed procedures for enhanced co-operation between member states in relation to the directive. In this regard, information on the rights of posted workers in Ireland has been placed on the employment rights page of my Department's website. In addition, a list of national liaison offices and authorities responsible for monitoring the terms and conditions of employment of posted workers is also available in English, French and German on this website. This list facilitates posted workers if they have a complaint about their rights under the directive.
The expert group has also drawn up a code of conduct on co-operation standards for communications between liaison offices in the member states. This code provides that requests for information from one national liaison office to another should be dealt with on a priority basis and that replies should be furnished within four weeks.