The statistics below relate to the enforcement of the decisions of both Employment Appeals Tribunal (EAT) determinations and Labour Court rulings. The enforcement statistics are recorded by the National Employment Rights Authority (NERA) as one complete group rather than being allocated individually between the two bodies.
Table 1 summarises the number of cases in respect of which requests to institute civil enforcement proceedings were made to the Minister in the course of 2011, 2012 and for the period to 30 September 2013.
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TABLE 1
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2011
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2012
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End-Sept 2013
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Cases on hand:
start of year
|
54
|
89
|
105
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New Cases Received
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79
|
75
|
51
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Cases Closed
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44
|
59
|
55
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Cases on hand:
end of year
|
89
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105
|
101
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Table 2 summarises the amounts involved in civil enforcement requests which were made to the Minister for the years 2011 to 30 September 2013.
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Year
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Arrears Paid to employees as a result of Civil Enforcement by NERA
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2011
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€88,361
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2012
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€105212
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End-Sept 2013
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€34,146
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A "fit for purpose" workplace relations system must be supported by proportionate, effective and efficient compliance and enforcement measures. It is my view that the current system of enforcement of employment rights awards is cumbersome, expensive and, accordingly, not "fit for purpose". For this reason, I am proposing to make provision in the Workplace Relations Bill for a range of enhanced compliance measures, including the use of Compliance Notices, Fixed Charge Notices and a new mechanism for enforcing awards of the WRC Adjudicators and Labour Court Determinations. I am confident that the introduction of these measures will provide for more proportionate, efficient and effective enforcement of employment law.
The Government is committed to reform of the State’s Workplace Relations Services. The system that developed over the last sixty years had become unwieldy and complex; it lacked consistency, involved long delays and in some cases proved expensive for users. I propose to establish a two-tier Workplace Relations structure. That will involve two statutorily independent bodies replacing the current five. We will have a new single body of first instance to be called the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) and a separate appeals body, which will effectively be an expanded Labour Court.
The WRC will replace the Labour Relations Commission, the National Employment Rights Authority, the Equality Tribunal and undertake the first instance functions of the EAT and the Labour Court. The Labour Court will take on the appellate functions of the EAT. These four bodies, including the EAT, will then be dis-established following the transfer of their functions to the WRC.
Significant progress has been made to date and I am happy to report that a number of priority actions have been successfully delivered within the target timescale. These include;
- a new single contact portal called “Workplace Relations Customer Services” has replaced the five separate entry points resulting in complaints being acknowledged and employers notified of complaints in a much speedier fashion,
- a Single Complaint Form that deals with over 100 first instance complaints has replaced the 30 forms previously in use,
- an Early Resolution Service is now seeking to resolve disputes at an early stage without the need for adjudication,
- responsibility for the Equality Tribunal (but not including the policy functions of the Minister for Justice and Equality concerning equality) was transferred from the Minister for Justice and Equality to me with effect from 1 January, 2013, and
- the final workplace relations website, which replaces the interim website and the websites of the existing five workplace relation bodies, was launched on 30 September, 2013. A new determinations database and e-complaint facility were also launched on 30 September, 2013.
While considerable progress has been achieved to date on an administrative basis, completing the proposed reform requires the enactment of detailed legislation. In this regard, significant amount of work has been completed on the preparation of the Workplace Relations Bill to provide the statutory basis for the new structures and processes envisaged.
Enactment of the Bill will necessitate amendments to 22 primary Acts, 12 specified parts or sections of Acts and 71 statutory instruments. The Scheme of the Workplace Relations Bill has been approved for priority drafting by the Cabinet and was included on the 'A' list for the Government's Autumn Legislative Programme 2013. Engagement is on-going with the Attorney General’s Office and I am committed to the publications and enactment of the legislation at an early stage with a view to having the proposed new structures in place during 2014.
In the meantime, I intend to continue to progress the reform and bring about further enhancements of the services offered, on an administrative basis in the coming months.
