asked the Minister for Labour if he will consider amending section 22 of the Industrial Relations Act, 1946, to enable the Labour Court or its servants to forward to trade unions, the IDA or other appropriate agencies, information obtained during the course of inability to pay assessments, where such information indicates serious economic difficulty on the part of the company being assessed, and which could result in remedial action being taken to protect jobs and investment in that company.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Industrial Relations Act.
9.
Under the provisions of the National Wage Agreements, the Labour Court have a role in relation to claims by employers of inability to pay the increases provided for in those agreements. The agreements have not provided for access by the parties to assessors' reports. The Court are free to determine their own procedures and have decided that assessors' reports in inability to pay cases should remain confidential to themselves.
The proposals for a 1978 National Wage Agreement, however, provide that the Labour Court should, due regard being had to the need for confidentiality, make appropriate arrangements to apprise trade union and employer representatives of the substance of assessors' reports. In so far as confidentiality is concerned, the Labour Court will continue to be bound by the provisions of section 22 of the Industrial Relations Act, 1946, which prohibits the court from including in any report, or disclosing any information which has been obtained by them in the course of proceedings before them under the Act without the consent of the parties concerned.
These arrangements have the general support of trade unions and employers and I do not propose to seek an amendment of the Industrial Relations Acts as suggested in the question.
Would the Minister not agree, in relation to the recent Ferenka case, that everybody, Minister, unions and the Labour Court must have learned something from the lessons of that particular incident? In those circumstances would he not accept that an inability to pay is an unusual crisis situation and the confidentiality rule could be waived in the interests of the workers whose livelihood is at stake as well as the business?
I confess to the Deputy that I have sympathy with the motives contained in his question, that is that an early warning of impending trouble, financial, job loss and so forth would be helpful. I suggest, however, that, first of all, the proposals in the 1978 National Wage Agreement go a little bit further regarding the disclosure of information which may help. On the other hand, I do not see the Labour Court being the vehicle for such early notification. I believe the independence of the Labour Court has to be maintained, that their function in industrial relations should be confined to that area and possibly there may be other ways and means by which the early disclosure could be given. I sympathise with the Deputy and I share his concern about the necessity for it but I would prefer to see it handled some other way.
I am glad the Minister shares my concern on this issue. Would he not agree that if the Labour Court carry on broadly with the practice they have observed in the past, workers can find themselves again in this trapped situation where there is no way out; the decisions have been taken and they are the victims of those decisions which have been taken. If they were aware earlier of the decision in the company the unions might take a completely different course in the negotiations going on at any particular time.
As I said in the reply to the question, under the terms of the 1978 National Wage Agreement as negotiated, due regard is being had to the need for confidentiality still, but it will provide that the Labour Court should make appropriate arrangements to apprise trade union and employer representatives of the substance of the assessor's reports. That would at least go some part of the way.
Have the trade unions been given any further rights to ask for information in a particular situation? May they ask the Labour Court for information when they are particularly worried about a case?
I assume if the context of the assessor's report is made available to them, it will convey what the assessor has found in his assessment of the situation.