Vol. 494 No. 6
74 Mrs. Owen asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the plans, if any, she has to increase the labour inspectorate in her Department with responsibility to enforce employment regulation orders in the catering industry; the number of these orders breached; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [18996/98]
Minimum pay rates and employment conditions for the catering sector outside Dublin city and Dún Laoghaire are regulated by an employment regulation order — ERO.
Pay rates and employment conditions for the catering sector in the Dublin city/Dún Laoghaire area are being developed at present through negotiation between employer and worker representatives under the aegis of the Dublin city/Dún Laoghaire joint labour committee —— JLC. It is envisaged that, upon completion of these negotiations — possibly by the end of 1998 — the Labour Court will confirm the agreed pay and conditions through the making of an ERO, thereby giving statutory effect in the Dublin city/Dún Laoghaire area to the pay/conditions negotiated in the JLC.
The existing catering ERO is enforced by the labour inspectorate of my Department and I am satisfied that enforcement, in due course, of a new ERO for the catering sector in Dublin city/Dún Laoghaire will not warrant any increase in staffing allocations to the inspectorate. Accordingly, I have no plans to increase the inspectorate's current strength.
The labour inspectorate, in its enforcement activity in relation to the existing catering ERO, carried out 632 inspections in the period 1 January to 30 September 1998. In this period 100 breaches of the ERO in the matter of pay/holiday entitlements were identified, resulting in the collection of arrears due to affected workers of £35,565. The comparable figures for the full year 1997 were — 1,014 inspections, 138 breaches identified and arrears collected of £66,090.
