Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 14 July 2022
182. Deputy Claire Kerrane asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if he will consider making the recommendations of the Workplace Relations Commission binding in cases which it involves a body that is funded by the State and therefore, the taxpayer where such a body is found to have done wrong. [39052/22]
View answerIreland’s system of industrial relations is essentially voluntary in nature. The role of the State has been to underpin a voluntarist system through the provision of a framework and institutions through which good industrial relations can prosper. This system has served us well over the decades.
Adjudications carried out in the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) under the industrial relations acts, are not about rectifying a legal wrong. The aim of an IR recommendations is to assist parties in maintaining industrial harmony. Accordingly, they cannot be legally binding.
