The Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) contributes to multi-agency efforts to enforce the Atypical Worker Permission Scheme for Non-EEA Workers engaged on certain Irish-registered whitefish fishing vessels which was introduced by the Department of Justice and Equality in February, 2016 . Some 180 fishing vessels come within the scope of that Scheme.
Arising from the Covid-19 pandemic and in line with the Health Services Executive (HSE) and Government advice regarding non-essential services at the time, on-site employment-rights related inspection activity by WRC inspectors was suspended for a period with effect from 13 March, 2020. From early-June 2020, in addition to their statutory functions, all WRC Inspectors have been deployed in support of the Health and Safety Authority in ensuring that Covid-19 Return to Work Safety Protocols are being observed in specified sectors. To the period June 2020 to end May this year WRC inspectors completed almost 6,800 such Covid-19 visits which were carried out alongside the WRC broader remit. All such visits and inspections must be carried out in a manner that does not place the WRC staff or the management and/or employees at hazard in the context of Covid-19.
Where on-site inspection activity was not advisable in current circumstances, the WRC undertook remote inspections of employment law compliance across all sectors in 2020 and to date this year by means of interviews with employers and employees by way voice or video call and examination of records and documentation made available to the WRC through a secure share file facility. In terms of fisher activity, some 36 inspections which included one on-board inspection were completed in the fisheries sector in the 12-month period 1st June 2020 to 31st May 2021, covering some 40 vessels coming within the scope of the Atypical Scheme. Some 454 fisheries inspections have now been undertaken by WRC Inspectors since the introduction of the Atypical Scheme.
43 contraventions of employment rights or employment permits legislation were detected in the fisheries sector in the 12-month period to 31st May, 2021. This brings to 323 the number of contraventions detected by WRC Inspectors since the introduction of the Atypical Scheme. These 43 contraventions can be categorised as follows:
- Failure to grant Annual Leave and Public Holiday entitlements (11)
- Unauthorised deductions from wages (3)
- Failure to cooperate and/or comply with a lawful direction (9)
- Failure to pay the National Minimum Hourly rate of pay (3)
- Employment of fishers without permission (5)
- Contraventions of Atypical Worker Scheme (3)
- Contraventions of Working Time Regulations (referred to Department of Transport) (8)
- Contravention of safety training regulations (referred to Department of Transport) (1)
Fishing vessel owners who do not effect compliance on a voluntary basis, following the issue of a Contravention Notice, will, depending on the legislation involved, be issued with a Compliance Notice or Fixed Payment Notice or face prosecution. Current policy provides for the initiation of prosecution proceedings in relation to the offence of employing a non-EEA national without a valid permission to work.
54 fisheries investigations/cases were closed during the 12-month period to end May 2021. Currently, there are open investigations in a further 51 cases, in 7 of which legal proceedings have been issued while Contravention Notices have issued in 11 cases. Investigations are on-going in the remaining 36 cases.
