Address by Mr Micheal Martin, Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment at the FAS/ Irish Examiner Sponsored Conference - Impending Employment Legislation - at the Hayfield Manor Hotel, Cork on Friday 12^th November 2004

I am very pleased to be here in Cork this morning to officially open the FAS/Irish Examiner Sponsored Conference - Impending Employment Legislation. Firstly, let me thank the organisers FAS and the Irish Examiner for sponsoring the Conference and to thank Supply Chain Consultants for organising the various logistics involved.

The Conference will be chaired by Pat Casey, Vice President, Human Resources EMEA Operations, Dell. The aim of the Conference is to provide insights from key industry figures on the issues, and opportunities facing HR professionals; and will focus in particular on:

EU Information and Consultation Directive

The Equality Act 2004

The draft EU Directive on Working Conditions for Temporary Workers

I see from the Conference brochure that you have a very varied and interesting list of Speakers who will address you over the day and I would also like to take this opportunity to thank them for giving of their valuable time to be here with us today.

A central tenet for HR executives in developing, implementing and monitoring HR policies and procedures -should be to have due regard to the various pieces of Employment Rights legislation currently on the Irish Statute Book.

In addition, HR executives must also be forward looking and be aware of what is likely to be "coming down the tracks", in relation to various Employment Rights Directives at EU level or indeed any proposed domestic legislation, so that they can plan out their strategies as to how they, will in time implement these in practice in their respective employments.

This represents both a challenge and an opportunity to HR Managers. Today's Conference recognizes this challenge and opportunity.

The primary objectives of Employment Rights legislation are to protect employees against arbitrary or capricious behaviour by employers; to protect the safety and health of workers and to foster labour market harmony by promoting personnel policies that minimize conflict and maximise fairness.

Additional objectives are to afford special protection to special groups, e.g. pregnant workers, young workers; and to facilitate necessary workforce adjustment by providing established criteria and procedures for minimising conflict and compensating job losses.

Employment Rights legislation continues to have an important role to play in promoting labour market stability. The economic benefits of employment security and agreed employment relationships in terms of co-operative work place relations, greater internal flexibility, acceptance of technological change, cumulative skills acquisition and greater incentive for investment in human resources are widely recognised and accepted. Employment Rights legislation has an input in respect of each of these factors - as employees who enjoy good working conditions - are more likely to be productive and to be willing to embrace change.

It is widely accepted that the consensus and partnership approach of consultation and dialogue with the Social Partners and other interested parties has enabled us to provide a modern and relevant body of Employment Rights legislation which, together with the promise of overall flexibility, will assist us in facing the economic challenges ahead. These challenges have major implications for businesses - both large and small - and include global competition, social inclusion and modernisation of the economy.

This consensus on economic and social policy issues we have had in Ireland through successive National Programmes could not have been achieved without the existence of basic social standards. This consensus approach involving employers, employees and Government has been a major contributor to Ireland's recent economic success and has been backed up by a well-balanced suite of employment rights, which together with measures designed to stimulate employment, provide an appropriate framework for the purpose of achieving an efficient and competitive business environment.

Indeed, the current Social Partnership Agreement - "Sustaining Progress" - the sixth in a series of such Agreements between Government and the Social Partners dating back to 1987 - provides a coherent and focused strategy for managing the interlocking elements of the economy. With this Agreement we have in place agreed strategies in a range of areas that set the way for moving forward over the next three years.

In keeping with the voluntarist tradition of Irish Industrial Relations, collective agreements are the primary method of determining conditions of employment. The role of statute law has, traditionally, been limited to that of setting minimum levels of protection or entitlement. However, from such a base we have succeeded in rising to a level where we now have a greater proportion of good quality, well paid, secure jobs than ever before.

Ireland has over the last twenty to thirty years, been to the forefront in ensuring that reasonable conditions of employment exist which set out clearly - for both employers and employees - their respective obligations and entitlements. Successive Governments have enacted legislation in the area of employment rights reflecting changes in society and the workplace at both national and international levels e.g. through national incentives and through the transposition of EU Directives and the ratification of International Labour Organisation (ILO) and Council of Europe Recommendations and Conventions.

Such legislation has covered a wide range of areas including:

Minimum Notice and Terms of Employment

Protection Against Unfair Dismissal

Organisation of Working Time, (covering areas such as holiday entitlements, rest periods, maximum working time and night work)

Protection of Young Persons at Work

Safety, Health and Welfare at Work

Redundancy Entitlement

Minimum Wage Entitlement

Carer's Leave Entitlement

Protection of Part-Time and Fixed-Term Employees

Safeguarding of Employees Rights on the Transfer of Undertakings

Against the background of a better educated and better informed workforce, I believe that priority must continue to be given to the on-going provision, - to both employees and employers - of clear, accessible and comprehensive information on employment rights and obligations and to the development of speedy, informal and inexpensive complaints and enforcement procedures.

My Department's Employment Rights Information Unit dealt with some 146,000 enquiries in 2003. To date in 2004, they have handled some 118,000 calls. These figures reflect a greater awareness by employers and employees of their obligations and entitlements and their desire to ensure that they are honoured. This is a healthy and positive development that I welcome.

I might add, that information on the various pieces of Employment Rights currently in place is available on my Department's website. www.djei.ie. The more that both employees and employers are aware of their rights and obligations the better all round for everyone. Today's Conference also contributes to this important process.

I should also say that I am keen that we utilise every opportunity to simplify legislation and reduce administrative burdens on employers. There is no compelling reason why employment rights legislation should be bulky or complex. In this context, the Statute Law (Restatement) Act 2002 provides an opportunity to simplify legislation and reduce administrative burdens on citizens and practitioners. This Act will help simplify the presentation of legislation by pulling together several pieces of legislation into a single restatement of the content of several Acts. Restatement will not change the import of the legislation but will make it easier for all to understandand utilise the legislation. My Department is currently working closely with the Attorney General's Office in this area and it is hoped that the Unfair Dismissals Acts, 1977 to 2001 will be the first set of employment rights legislation to be restated in this fashion. I expect this process to be completed by the end of this year.

Continuing to look ahead, there are a number of impending and important pieces of legislation currently in the pipeline. Some of these will be dealt with in greater detail over the day, but I think it would be appropriate that I mention them briefly. These are:

(a) Proposed Directive on Temporary Agency Workers

This draft Directive, published in 2002, has been the subject of discussions at a number of Employment and Social Affairs Councils under the Danish, Greek and Italian Presidencies of the European Union - but political agreement could not be reached.

The main issues outstanding are the qualifying period before which an agency worker's employment rights would click into place. Ireland along with Germany, the U.K. and Denmark are looking for a minimum of six months before such rights would be granted - while the European Commission's proposal is that the period should be six weeks. The second outstanding issue is that of the use of restrictions on the use of agency workers. Ireland has no restrictions on the use of agency workers. We consider that where Member States impose such restrictions, these should be reviewed. Ireland also considers that any final agreement reached on the Directive should involve some form of "trade-off" on the above two outstanding issues.

The Directive has recently been resurrected by the current Dutch Presidency. Two of the new Member States - Poland and Slovakia - have also looked for a longer qualifying period. An exchange of political views took place over lunch at the Employment and Social Affairs Council on Monday 4 October last. However, it did not prove possible to reach any consensus on a way forward. The Dutch Presidency is, I understand, looking at how it might progress the dossier at the December Council, but at this stage, it is not exactly clear as to how they propose to do this.

(b) Review of the Working Time

On 22 September 2004, the European Commission published its proposal to amend the Working Time Directive. This followed an extensive consultation process earlier this year, involving Member States, the EU Social Partners and the European Parliament.

The proposal makes a number of amendments to the original Working Time Directive from 1993 having regard to the recent European Court of Justice Rulings in the SIMAP and Jaeger Cases. These amendments relate to the definitions of "working time" and "on-call time"; the extension of the reference period from four months to twelve months for calculating the 48 hour working week; the granting of "compensatory rest" within a reasonable period, which should not exceed 72 hours; and proposals for the retention of the "opt-out" provision with the introduction of a number of safeguards aimed at protecting individual workers.

The Commission's proposal is currently under consideration in Brussels in the Social Questions Council Working Group. The Dutch Presidency hopes to reach political agreement at the December Council following which the proposal will be considered by the European Parliament under the co-decision process laid down in the Maastricht Treaty.

Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Bill 2004

This Bill currently before the Dail repeals older legislation first enacted in 1989 and will provide a modern legal framework to guarantee best international practice in regard to health and safety in the Irish workplace.  The Bill will also ensure Ireland's compliance with EU law in this area.

The massive growth of Ireland's economy over the past decade or so means that there are more people at work in the country than ever before - 1.9 million now as compared with 1.2 million in 1989.  This in turn has brought a new focus to bear on our working environment.   It is right that the development of a modern industry and of a modern industrial infrastructure should be accompanied by a modern set of rules and laws governing the obligations of employers and employees alike in ensuring safety in the work place.

 Safety is paramount.  It is incumbent on us as a Government to provide the necessary regulation to ensure that each one of us can go to our place of work in the knowledge that we are entering a safe environment.  That is a basic entitlement and this new Bill is capable of achieving that objective. Committee Stage of the Bill will be taken in the Dail later this month and I expect it to be enacted by the end of this year.

Information and Consultation Directive

The European Union Employee Information and Consultation Directive will be transposed into Irish law next year. This Directive is the latest legal expression on the right of employees to information and consultation from their employers. The Government is committed to raising awareness of, and giving effect to, this right. It is an important development in Irish employment law as it gives employees in enterprises over a certain size the right to information and consultation about the business in which they work, its prospects and the circumstances affecting their employment.

Information and consultation of employees and the development of a greater sense of partnership at enterprise level are vital components of an adaptable workplace. In Ireland, we have seen the benefits of partnership at national level. Our social partnership model has been a crucial element in the economic success that we have achieved over the past decade. We now want to meet the challenge of embedding partnership and making it a reality for workers and employers at enterprise level. It is the Irish Government's policy to encourage improvement in information and consultation of employees in enterprises as a means of improving competitiveness and the development of a greater sense of partnership at the level of the enterprise. I believe that Information and Consultation is a key contributor to high performance workplaces and I hope that the preparation of new legislation in this area will be seen as an opportunity to promote and consolidate existing good practices and to foster adaptability in the workplace.

A number of benefits can accrue to organisations from the use of effective information and consultation systems which can serve as a catalyst for the development of innovative working practices, deep cultural change and new forms of work. Research has demonstrated that informing and consulting with employees can contribute to improvements in organisational performance, competitiveness and employment relations. From the employee perspective, benefits include an improved quality of work life; greater ownership of issues and greater responsiveness to change.

My Department launched a Consultation Paper on the European Union Information and Consultation Directive in July 2003 and we received many valuable inputs into the preparation of legislation by way of submissions.

I would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank all those who responded. It is important to me that effective and meaningful consultation takes place with the social partners as part of the process of transposing the EU Directive into Irish law. The result should be a balanced and solid Act that reflects the needs of all stakeholders in the workplace. We aim to publish a Bill in the near future with a view to meeting the transposition deadline of March next year.

In conclusion, I know I have touched on a number of important issues in my address to you this morning. As I mentioned earlier, these new pieces of Employment Rights Legislation represent both a challenge and an opportunity.

In fairness to all here today, I fully appreciate that I am talking to the converted - in that the audience here today recognises the importance of employment rights legislation in the workplace. The holding of this Conference is testament of this. It also shows the need to ensure that HR Managers/employers are well informed and provided with clear and comprehensive information on the rights and obligations of both employers and employees as well as the need to keep abreast of, and be well prepared for any new legislation, on the horizon.

I hope that you find today's Conference both informative and beneficial in this regard and I wish all participants - both Speakers and members of the audience alike - well in their deliberations.