Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 28 July 2020
80. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation if the Workplace Relations Commission received correspondence from a person (details supplied) in County Donegal; if so, when they will receive a response; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18526/20]
View answerThe Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) is an independent statutory office under the aegis of my Department. The WRC’s core services include the provision of early resolution, mediation, conciliation, facilitation and advisory services, adjudication on employment and equality complaints, the monitoring of employment conditions to ensure the compliance and enforcement of employment rights legislation, the provision of information, and the processing of employment agency and protection of young persons (employment) licences.
In line with Government advice, the administrative staff of the WRC were required to work from home from 13 March and the office remained closed for a number of weeks. As staff were enabled to work from home, all electronically received correspondence was processed during this period. However, physical post was not. While the office remains largely closed, a small number of staff has returned and I am informed that the large quantity of physical post received over that period has been fully processed and the issues raised in the correspondence is being dealt with.
The correspondence mentioned by the Deputy was received by the Information and Customer Service Unit in its Carlow office on 11 March 2020 and I understand that a reply issued to the person in question on 21 July in which the WRC apologised for the delay in responding and informed the person of the appropriate channels to follow should the person wish to pursue the matter further.
Similarly, the letter from the Deputy was received by the WRC in Carlow in early June. I understand that a reply to the letter has issued and the delay is very much regretted.
The WRC has informed me that it has no record on its file of an email sent two years ago. The matter in question relates to a collective dispute in which the person concerned was a party. The WRC's practice in such cases is to contact the person and to redirect them to their representative in terms of any issues they might have with the outcome of the collective case.
