David Stanton
Ceist:104 Mr. Stanton asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the implementation to date of the Organisation of Working Time Act, 1997; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [15086/99]
Written Answers. - Organisation of Working Time Act.
I have taken the question to imply a request for information on progress to date in the implementation of the Organisation of Working Time Act, 1997.
The Organisation of Working Time Act, 1997, is the legislative vehicle by which EU Council Directive 93/104/EC of 23 November 1993 concerning certain aspects of the organisation of working time has been implemented in Ireland. The fundamental objective of both the Directive and the Act is the protection of the health and safety of workers through the application of minimum health and safety requirements for the organisation of their work. The Act came into operation on a phased basis commencing on 30 September 1997, with full implementation of the Act taking effect as and from 1 March 1998.
The Act lays down binding minimum rights and entitlements for workers in respect of such matters concerning their employment as daily and weekly rest, rest breaks at work, maximum weekly working hours, Sunday working and holidays. It does not, however, have application to members of the Gárda Síochána or the Defence Forces. The holiday provisions apply to all workers but Part II of the Act, which contains provisions concerning minimum rest periods and other matters relating to working time, does not apply to persons engaged in the activities of a doctor in training, in sea fishing or in other work at sea; persons who control their own working hours or persons who are family employees working on a farm or in a private house.
Section 19 of the Act sets down the minimum entitlement in respect of holidays but the First Schedule to the Act provides for an arrangement whereby this entitlement could be introduced incrementally on a phased basis over the leave years 1996/7, 1997/8 and 1998/9. However, the minimum entitlement of four weeks annual leave specified in section 19 applies to all workers in the leave year 1999/2000 and in subsequent leave years. Under section 15 a transitional arrangement is also provided for in respect of the maximum weekly working hours ordinarily permitted – i.e., 48 : this arrangement, whose objective is to minimise possible disruptive effects on work and production practices in individual employments, allowed employees, under certain conditions, to work up to 60 hours per week on average during the year commencing 1 March 1998 and allows them to work up to 55 hours per week on average during the year commencing 1 March 1999. This transitional phase will end on the last day of February 2000 by which date all workers covered by the Act will be subject to the maximum limit of an average of 48 hours work per week.
A monitoring group, chaired by an official of my Department and composed of employer and employee representative organisations, was established by me with a broad mandate to examine any widespread difficulties arising in the workplace from implementation of the Act and to propose possible solutions to these. The group held its inaugural session in July 1998, met on a number of subsequent occasions and concluded its business for the time being in March 1999. A report on its work was presented to me in March last and, arising from this, both the Tánaiste and I are in continuing discussion with members of the group in regard to aspects of it. Pending completion of these discussions and any decisions resulting therefrom, I am honour-bound to the parties concerned to treat their report confidentially.
I have made three orders and six sets of regulations under powers available to me in various provisions of the Act. These, together with the purpose of each, are as follows.
S.I. No. 392 of 1997 – Organisation of Working Time Act, 1997 (Commencement) Order, 1997 (The purpose of this Order is to appoint the days on which the specified provisions of the Organisation of Working Time Act, 1997 come into operation).
S.I. No. 475 of 1997 – Organisation of Working Time (Determination of Pay for Holidays) Regulations, 1997 (These Regulations set out the methods of calculating, for the purposes of the Organisation of Working Time Act, 1997 (a) the normal weekly rate of an employees pay (sections 20 and 23) and (b) the appropriate daily rate of an employees pay (section 22))
S.I. No. 20 of 1998 – Organisation of Working Time (Exemption of Transport Activities) Regulations, 1998 (These Regulations prescribe that persons employed in a transport activity as defined in the Schedule should be exempt from the application of certain sections of the Organisation of Working Time Act, 1997 dealing with daily rest, rests and intervals at work, weekly rest, weekly working hours and nightly working hours).
S.I. No. 21 of 1998 – Organisation of Working Time (General Exemptions) Regulations, 1998 (These Regulations prescribe that persons employed in the activities specified in the Schedule to these Regulations shall be exempt from the application of certain sections of the Organisation of Working Time Act, 1997 dealing with daily rest, rests and intervals at work, weekly rest and nightly working hours).
S.I. No. 44 of 1998 – Organisation of Working Time (Code of Practice on Compensatory Rest and Related Matters) (Declaration) Order, 1998 (This Order declares the code of practice set out in the Schedule to the Order to be a code of practice on compensatory rest periods for the purposes of section 6 of the Organisation of Working Time Act, 1997).
S.I. No. 52 of 1998 – Organisation of Working Time (Exemption of Civil Protection Services) Regulations, 1998 (These Regulations prescribe that persons employed in the activities in the civil protection services specified in the Schedule to these Regulations shall be exempt from the application of certain sections of the Organisation or Working Time Act, 1997 dealing with daily rest, rests and intervals at work, weekly rest, weekly working hours and nightly working hours).
S.I. No 57 of 1998 – Organisation of Work ing Time (Breaks at Work for Shop Employees) Regulations, 1998 (These Regulations provide that shop employes whose hours of work include the period from 11:30 am to 2:30 p.m. shall, after 6 hours work, be allowed a break of one hour which must commence between those hours, provided such commencement would not result in the break occurring at the end of the working day).
S.I. No. 444 of 1998 – Organisation of Working Time (code of practice on Sunday working in the retail trade and related matters) (Declaration) Order, 1998. (This Order declares the code of practice set out in the Schedule to this Order to be a code of practice on Sunday working in the retail trade for the purposes of section 14 of the Organisation of Working Time Act, 1997).
S.I. No. 10 of 1999 – Organisation of Working Time (Public Holiday) Regulations, 1999 (These regulations appoint the 31st December, 1999 to be a special public holiday in celebration of the millennium).
Copies of each of the above-listed orders/ regulations were laid before the Dáil.
Inspection work to check on compliance by employers with their obligations under the Act towards their employees is a regular feature of the on going labour law enforcement activity carried out by the labour inspectorate of my Department. The primary focus of this work is to regularise any non-compliant activity which may be discovered and to secure appropriate and timely recoupment of arrears for employees found to have been paid less than their due entitlements by their employers. Where appropriate, legal proceedings are instituted against offending employers. Offences under the Act most commonly committed by employers are those which relate to employee entitlements in respect of annual leave, public holidays and Sunday working and to failure to retain due records to show that they – employers – are complying with the Act.
In general I am satisfied that employers and employees are reasonably well-informed on the essential requirements of the Act. I am satisfied too that the various flexibilities and transitional arrangements built into it have been of significant help in facilitating, especially in those instances where specific local employment difficulties arose, an orderly implementation of the various benefits, protections and entitlements conferred on workers by the Act. The next phase in the EU programme to extend the principles of worker protection contained in Directive 93/104 to those sectors which were excluded from its scope – primarily the various transport sectors, seafishing and doctors in training – is now well under way in Brussels where new directives are being developed and negotiated in the relevant council working groups. I look forward to completion of this process so that I may then proceed to introduce such implementing legislation as may be necessary to extend appropriate health and safety measures with respect to work organisation to those sectors of the domestic workforce which do not as yet enjoy protection under the Act of 1997.