Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 25 July 2023
683. Deputy Ivana Bacik asked the Minister for Social Protection the number of misclassified contracts identified by her Department at RTÉ, and compliance notices issued to RTÉ, for social insurance purposes in each of the years 2018 to 2022 and to date in 2023. [35820/23]
View answer684. Deputy Ivana Bacik asked the Minister for Social Protection if findings by the SCOPE section of her Department have been disputed by RTÉ; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [35821/23]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 683 and 684 together.
My Department commenced an investigation in 2020 into the employment status of workers engaged by RTÉ on an independent contractor basis. This investigation is ongoing. The investigation is separate to and independent from the review conducted by Eversheds on behalf of RTÉ.
Employment status decisions are based on the criteria set out in the Code of Practice on Determining Employment Status and by reference to decided case law. The Code aims to be of benefit to employers, employees, independent contractors and legal, financial and HR professionals. It is also aimed at investigators, decision-makers and adjudicators in my Department, the Office of the Revenue Commissioners, the WRC, their respective appeals bodies, and the courts.
The Code of Practice was updated in 2021 following work by my Department, the Revenue Commissioners, and the WRC. Other stakeholders such as ICTU and IBEC were consulted as part of this work.
The criteria set out in the Code are applied by Deciding Officers in my Department on each occasion that they assess the insurability of a worker as being either an employee or self-employed. For that reason, the work is resource-intensive. Investigations can be complex with a variety of issues to be considered.
Where an engagement has been found to be misclassified by an employer for social insurance purposes, any arrears of PRSI are assessed on and payable by the employer. The worker's PRSI record is corrected and a compliance notice is issued to the employer. On foot of these compliance notices, the employer is required to pay the full arrears of Class A PRSI liability.
The scale of my Department’s investigation in RTE is significant and involves retrospective analysis of the engagement of many workers, irrespective of their role or position within the organisation. My Department will report on the outcome of the investigation upon completion. This will ensure equality of treatment for all parties involved and enable our officers to conduct a professional investigation in the normal manner.
I trust that this clarifies matters for the Deputy.
