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Industrial Disputes

Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 14 February 2019

Thursday, 14 February 2019

Questions (123)

Clare Daly

Question:

123. Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation the average waiting times for cases in the Labour Court and WRC for each of the years 2016 to 2018 and to date in 2019; and her plans for the recruitment of sufficient staff to eliminate such delays. [7542/19]

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Written answers

The WRC Annual Reports for 2016 and 2017 set out information in relation to adjudication generally. During 2016, over three quarters of complaint applications were heard within 5 months of initial receipt of the complaint, with 55 per cent heard within four months. During 2017, the WRC saw a six per cent increase in adjudication complaints over 2016 and three quarters were scheduled for hearing within six months and the number of adjudication hearings were up by 24 per cent on the previous year.

In the first three full years of operation the WRC has received over 40,000 individual complaints. During 2018, the WRC saw more than a 10 per cent increase in the number of specific complaints being lodged over the previous year. Despite this increase in volume, 75 per cent of hearings have been scheduled within 5 months.

The output of the WRC in terms of hearings and decisions issued has significantly increased over the same period as indicated in the table below.

2016

2017

2018

Hearings held

3,518

4,370

5,312

Decision issued

1,232

2,247

2,964

Currently, over 90 per cent of complaints received by the WRCs adjudication service are processed from receipt to hearing and decision within 6 months where no requests for postponement are received, where all parties are available, and submissions are received in a timely manner. Where parties are not available for the initial hearing date offered, and/or where they have attempted to mediate the dispute or have not submitted submissions in a timely manner then the median time for receipt of all complaints to decision is 9 months currently.

In relation to cases before the Labour Court, in 2016 and 2017, the average timescale for scheduled hearings was 13 weeks in Dublin and 16 weeks outside of Dublin.

The Labour Court is currently undertaking a fundamental review of its management information system to ensure it can collate accurate data in order to support and facilitate effective and efficient processes. In this context, robust data for 2018 and 2019 is not yet available.

My Department works closely with the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) and the Labour Court monitoring the staffing and budgetary requirements of both bodies, including anticipating future resource requirements to ensure that they are supported and adequately resourced to fulfil their roles, as committed to in the Programme for Government. Both bodies have already benefitted from additional resources.

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