Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 26 January 2017
14. Deputy Mick Barry asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he will instruct all Departments to ensure that when tendering for construction projects that they favour bids that are based on direct employment of labour and observance of agreed sectorial rates of pay; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3424/17]
Amharc ar fhreagraModern manufacturing involves a significant supply chain contributing to a single product. The construction industry is no different in this regard and the procurement of a construction project assumes a significant element of subcontracting. The award of a main contract on the basis of direct employees would indirectly impose conditions on the construction sector that do not apply to the rest of the manufacturing sector requiring a significant change to the practice of project delivery.
The 2014 EU directive permits contracting authorities to ask tenderers to identify the percentage of the contract they intend to subcontract and includes a requirement for contractors to identify their subcontractors after the award of the contract.
The 2015 amendments to the Industrial Relations Act introduced the Sectoral Employment Order (SEO) to replace the system of registration of employment agreements struck down by the Supreme Court in 2013 as unconstitutional. An application for an SEO to govern construction sector pay is currently under consideration by the Labour Court. Until the SEO is registered in accordance with the legislation, it may not be enforced by the relevant authorities.
In seeking to ensure that public construction contracts are undertaken by businesses who are compliant with relevant employment law, the public works contracts contain conditions that require the main contractor to:
- post a notice on the site setting out the employment rights of the workers;
- submit a certificate with each payment application stating that they are compliant with these conditions of contract;
- maintain records of payments to all those engaged on the site;
- permit union representatives who are party to any employment agreement access to the contractor's management on matters related to their members who are employed on the site;
- on a weekly basis to provide a list of all those engaged on the site and their hours worked.
Where a contractor fails to comply with these provisions, the contracting authority may withhold monies from payments due until the situation is rectified and advise the relevant enforcement authorities.
Employment law and matters relating to sectoral rates of pay are matters for my colleague, the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation. The Workplace Relations Commission is the body tasked with establishing compliance with employment law.
