The Deputy will appreciate that I am not in a position to comment on a national minimum wage compliance scheme operating in another jurisdiction.
I should point out that policy responsibility for the social care sector comes within the remit of the Minister for Health who, I understand, has previously commented on the particular issue of overnight workers in the social care sector. The Minister confirmed in the context of a parliamentary question in May 2017 that social care staff employed in the public health service are subject to the requirements of the European Working Time Directive as transposed into Irish law by the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997.
In 2014, the Labour Court issued a recommendation in 2014 that confirmed that time spent on sleepovers should be acknowledged as constituting working time and that staff should be paid at a rate that is equal to the national minimum hourly rate. It is my understanding that the Department of Health, the HSE, Social Care employers and unions are participating in a conciliation process on this issue which is independently chaired by the conciliation services of the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC).
The WRC comes within the remit of my Department and is responsible for compliance with employment rights legislation generally. Inspectors from the WRC routinely carry out inspections in all employment sectors, including the social care sector, with a view to checking for and enforcing employment rights compliance by employers.
The WRC carries out inspections of employer employment records:
- In response to complaints received of alleged non-compliance with relevant employment rights legislation;
- As part of compliance campaigns which focus on compliance in specific sectors or specific pieces of legislation, or
- As routine inspections, which act as a control measure.
The WRC’s aim is to achieve voluntary compliance with employment law through the provision of education and awareness, inspection of employers’ employment records and enforcement where necessary. While every effort is made to secure compliance, some employers either refuse or fail to rectify the breaches identified and/or pay money due to their employees. These cases are referred for prosecution.
The following is the outturn of inspections activities in the broader sector from 2014 to 2018. The figures for the sector were not captured separately prior to 2014.
Inspections in Health Nursing and Childcare Sector
|
|
No. of Inspections
|
Unpaid Wages Recovered
|
|
2014
|
88
|
€32,250
|
|
2015
|
83
|
€67,043
|
|
2016
|
73
|
€156,071
|
|
2017
|
78
|
€200,198
|
|
2018
|
4
|
€0
|
