asked the Minister for Labour if he will state (a) the number of inspectors employed by his Department under the Hotels Joint Labour Committee (b) the number of cases of infringements of the regulations on basic pay and conditions of employment in each of the past three years and (c) whether his Department intends to take action against a person (name supplied) who employed five people at wages far below those established by the committee with a view to recovering for these employees arrears of wages due to them.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Hotel Pay and Conditions.
12.
Eight inspectors of my Department are engaged in the enforcement of Employment Regulation Orders made by the various Joint Labour Committees. None of them is assigned exclusively to a particular committee. I propose to employ additional inspectors on this work.
The number of cases of infringements of the regulations on basic pay and conditions of employment in each of the past three years was as follows :
|
Year |
Number of Hotels involved |
Number of Workers involved |
Amount of arrears of pay collected for the workers |
|
1970 |
40 |
58 |
£1,287 |
|
1971 |
59 |
110 |
£1,655 |
|
1972 |
37 |
55 |
£1,442 |
If the Deputy will be good enough to send me the names of the five people referred to in his question, together with particulars of the periods of employment in which, it is stated, they were underpaid, I shall look into the matter further.
Perhaps the Minister would be good enough to advise his colleague on this matter. I have brought the Minister's attention to the fact that there is one hotelier infringing the regulations and it should be the duty of the Department to investigate this and not my duty.
If the Deputy brought the name of the hotel to the notice of the Department it would be attended to.
I have named the hotel. It figured prominently on an RTE programme and I do not think the Minister for Labour should ask me to do the work.
I am not suggesting that Deputy O'Connell should do the work. If the hotel employs more than five people it might be difficult to get the exact particulars without the names being supplied.
It figured prominently on an RTE programme.
We have seen a lot of things on RTE programmes from lime to time. It may not be accurate. I will pass the Deputy's comments on to the Minister for Labour.