Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 25 Jun 2002

Vol. 553 No. 5

Written Answers. - Employment Agency.

Pat Rabbitte

Ceist:

144 Mr. Rabbitte asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if her attention has been drawn to the activities of an employment agency (details supplied) in Dublin 11; her plans to take steps to assist the defrauded employees; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [14642/02]

Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment (Ms Harney)

I thank the Deputy for bringing this matter to my attention.

The employment agency in question held an employment agency licence issued by my Department under the Employment Agency Act, 1971, until 31 March 2001. These licences are renewable on an annual basis. Despite reminders to renew the licence and an undertaking from the agency to submit a completed renewal application, the agency failed to renew the licence. In view of this, my Department formed the opinion that the agency had ceased trading and no longer required a licence in accordance with the provisions of the 1971 Act.

There are no sanctions open under the insolvency payments scheme or the Protection of Employees (Employers' Insolvency) Acts, 1984 to 1991 in regard to the non-payment of wages, holiday pay or overtime owed to employees when a company merely ceases to trade. To come within the provisions of the above mentioned Acts and scheme, under which it is possible for eligible employees to claim certain amounts of outstanding pay-related entitlements of the type mentioned – wages, overtime, holiday pay – the company would have to be in liquidation or receivership or be covered by any of the other proceedings which define insolvency for the purposes of the Protection of Employees (Employers' Insolvency) Acts, 1984 to 1991 and the scheme.

One of the essential conditions of the insolvency payments scheme is the pre-existence of a statutory insolvency situation such as is defined in the definition of insolvency for the purposes of the 1984 Act. This definition covers situations such as liquidations, receiverships, bankruptcies etc. It should also be mentioned that any wage related entitlements would have to arise in the 18 month period prior to a company being formally declared insolvent.

In the case of the company in question, my Department has no record of it having being formally declared insolvent in accordance with the above Acts and, therefore, at this stage the former employees would not qualify for payment under the insolvency payments scheme. However, if at a future date, the employer is insolvent for the purposes of the Acts, the employees should complete the statutory form EIP1 which is available from the insolvency payments section of my Department in respect of any wages-holiday pay due to them and forward this form to the liquidator-receiver as appropriate. If the liquidator-receiver has insufficient funds to pay the outstanding entitlement he-she should apply to my Department for funds to pay the employees.

With regard to minimum notice entitlements, before payment may be made under the insolvency payments scheme, the employees must first establish their entitlement by appeal to the Employment Appeals Tribunal.

Full details of the information supplied may be obtained by contacting the employment rights information unit of my Department at [phone] or on Lo-call 1890 220222 where staff will be happy to assist. A full range of information leaflets is also available on request or by logging into my Department's website at www.entemp.ie.

Finally, I am advised that the issuing of cheques by the agency that have not been honoured may constitute fraud. The Deputy might wish to inform the parties involved that they may bring this matter to the attention of the gardaí for possible follow-up action.