Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 15 September 2020
247. Deputy Pat Buckley asked the Minister for Finance if his attention has been drawn to the potential that some employers might not be fully passing the wage subsidy scheme payment to their employees; the recourse for workers in this situation; and the steps he is taking to stop such practices and support workers that fall victim to it. [23897/20]
View answerThe Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme (TWSS), which was provided for in section 28 of the Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (COVID-19) Act 2020, expired on 31 August 2020. Revenue has advised me that it is currently conducting a programme of compliance checks on all employers who availed of the scheme in order to confirm that they met the eligibility criteria and, crucially, that their employees received the correct amount of subsidy due to them. As part of this programme, in order to ensure that employees were fairly treated and that TWSS funds were passed on to employees as intended, Revenue is seeking a sample of payslips from each employer. Under the TWSS legislation, employers were legally obliged to include the amount of subsidy paid on each employee’s payslips.
I am also advised by Revenue that where an employer has been paid a temporary wage subsidy in respect of an employee and it transpires that the employer has not passed on the wage subsidy to the employee, or that the employer was not entitled to receive the wage subsidy in respect of the employee, the relevant law requires that the employer must refund the wage subsidy amount to Revenue.
The TWSS has now been replaced by the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS) since 1 September as legislated for under the recently enacted Financial Provisions (Covid-19) (No. 2) Act 2020.
The specific nature and terms of the EWSS arrangement are separate and distinct from the TWSS: the EWSS is an economy-wide enterprise support that gives a flat rate subsidy to qualifying employers. The scheme is not an income support for employees, but is a stand-alone measure to preserve the link between employee and employer and support firm viability through an unprecedented enterprise environment and it is based on clear, objective criteria that may be determined by the Revenue Commissioners.
The EWSS provides a flat-rate subsidy to qualifying employers, based on the number of qualifying employees on the payroll. For every qualifying employee paid between €203 and €1,462 gross wages per week, the level of subsidy paid to the employer is €203. For every qualifying employee paid between €151.50 and €202.99 gross per week, the subsidy is €151.50. No subsidy is payable in respect of employees paid less than €151.50 gross or more than €1,462 gross per week.
The question of an individual employee’s entitlements in an employment context, and the question of what wages an employer may or may not be in a position to pay such an employee are matters that are outside the remit of the EWSS. The scheme has no role in relation to the employer/employee relationship in so far as the terms, conditions and entitlements of the employment are concerned, subject, of course, to the employer paying the minimum amount of gross wages to an employee, as outlined above, in order to qualify for subsidy.
Anything beyond that would be expressly outside of the remit of the Revenue Commissioners, but there are a sufficient number of bodies that deal with employment disputes in Ireland and where there is a high amount of expertise including the Workplace Relations Commission and the Labour Court. Although these bodies fall under the remit of the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation, it is understood that there are already checks and balances in place to ensure fairness to employees and employers.
In terms of employer eligibility, the EWSS legislation requires that immediately at the end of each month, from August 2020 onwards, each employer availing of the EWSS must carry out a self-review of its business circumstances. Following such review, if it is manifest to the employer that it no longer will meet the eligibility test for qualification for the scheme, namely, at least a 30 per cent reduction in business turnover or customer orders in the period from 1 July to 31 December 2020 by reference to the corresponding 2019 period, then the employer must immediately cease claiming wage subsidy payments.
Finally, the administration of the EWSS will be placed under the care and management of Revenue, as was done with its predecessor, the TWSS. While Revenue’s focus on the EWSS in its early stages will no doubt be concentrated on getting the scheme up and running and ensuring that all employers who are eligible for subsidy payments receive the payments in a timely manner, I have no doubt but that Revenue will, in due course, undertake an appropriate employer compliance campaign relating to employer eligibility under the EWSS.
