Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 20 July 2016
45. Deputy Bríd Smith asked the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation to ensure that the appropriate State bodies tasked with safeguarding the rights of workers are appropriately staffed and resourced to combat attempts by employers to break labour laws that seek to provide workers with basic protections. [22763/16]
View answerThe Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) was established on 1 October 2015 under the Workplace Relations Act 2015, and has responsibility for information provision, workplace advice, mediation, conciliation, adjudication, inspection and enforcement in relation to employment rights, equality and equal status matters and industrial relations.
The WRC assumed the roles and functions previously carried out by the National Employment Rights Authority (NERA), Equality Tribunal (ET), Labour Relations Commission (LRC), Rights Commissioners Service (RCS), and the first-instance (Complaints and Referrals) functions of the Employment Appeals Tribunal (EAT), and its staff forms part of the overall Departmental staffing complement.
On a day-to-day basis the HR Unit of my Department works with individual Business Units and the Department’s management Board team on the allocation of staff resources and this would include the WRC. Staffing resources are made available through my Department relevant to the functions noted above and are reflective of the requirement to manage the pay bill and staff numbers in accordance with Government policy, utilising available resources in the most effective and efficient manner as appropriate to business needs.
