Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 19 January 2011
77 Deputy Thomas P. Broughan asked the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation if his attention has been drawn to the serious concerns expressed at the long delays facing persons in having cases heard by the Employment Appeals Tribunal; if he will confirm that some persons face delays of up to 18 months; the average time for having a case heard; the steps being taken to speed up the process; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2518/11]
View answerThe Employment Appeals Tribunal (EAT) is one of the front-line services directly affected by the current turbulence in the labour market. The Tribunal hears claims under 18 separate pieces of legislation. Some claims, like Unfair Dismissal cases, are complex and can take up to 4 days. Between 2007 and 2009, the number of claims coming to the Tribunal trebled. While there has been a slight (7%) decrease in new claims lodged in 2010, the large volume of claims has had an impact on case processing timeframes.
I am informed that the longest recorded waiting periods at the end of December ranged from 54 weeks to 77 weeks. In the case of hearings concerning redundancy claims, the range was between 25 weeks and 65 weeks. These figures can be somewhat misleading. The Tribunal conducts hearings in about 36 locations. Where the number of cases is relatively small, the Tribunal may wait until a sufficient number of cases is on hand to make a visit worthwhile. In such areas, 5 days of Hearings may reduce the "waiting time" in the area concerned by 30 to 40 weeks.
I understand that the Tribunal targets areas with the longest waiting period and highest level of claims outstanding, within the resources it has currently available. Efficiencies introduced have increased the Tribunal's output. Over 6,000 claims were processed between January and the end of December 2010, which is more than double the number of cases processed in 2007.
A business process review of the Tribunal is being conducted to find further efficiencies. I am also making additional staff available to the Tribunal within the next few weeks with a view to enabling it to increase the number of Hearings in Dublin, and also to establish a specialist Division for the hearing of redundancy-related cases. In a recent pilot project in Cork, the temporary deployment of an extra Division there, with a special focus on redundancy-related cases, allowed the waiting-time for such cases to be reduced from 44.5 weeks to 19.5 weeks.
78 Deputy Seán Sherlock asked the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation when he intends to publish anti-victimisation legislation, designed to protect those workers who choose to join a trade union and which was promised by March 2009 under the review of Towards 2016; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2538/11]
View answer100 Deputy Liz McManus asked the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation his plans to publish legislation to address employee representation at work which was promised by June 2009 under the review of Towards 2016; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2527/11]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 78 and 100 together.
The Towards 2016 Review and Transitional Agreement 2008 — 2009 (paras 9.1 — 9.3) provides for the establishment of a review process to consider the legal and other steps necessary to enable the employee representation mechanisms that had been established under previous agreements — and in legislation — to operate as they had been intended. The Agreement (para 9.4) also commits the Government to bringing forward legislative proposals to prohibit the victimisation of trade union members and to prohibit the incentivisation of persons not to be members of a trade union.
In furtherance to these commitments, two informal meetings took place in late 2009, chaired by the Department of the Taoiseach and at which my Department; the Department of Finance; trade unions; and employers were represented. Position papers were prepared by the employer and trade union representatives on the issues which they saw as requiring to be addressed by any new legislation in this area. While consideration will continue within Government on proposals to address the issues involved, progress in bringing the work to a conclusion will have to take account of other priority legislative commitments to be delivered in the employment area, resource constraints within Departments, and the extent of agreement between the trade union and employer sides in this area.
