Speech by Minister Martin at the Launch of the Labour Relations Commission’s Strategic Plan 2008 – 2010

Industrial Relations

The capacity to resolve workplace disputes effectively contributes to the quality of the working environment and has a significant impact on organisational performance in terms of reducing days lost, enhancing productivity and improving management-employee relations.

We are very fortunate in terms of the industrial relations systems we have developed together in Ireland. The fundamental approach of successive Governments to industrial relations has been one of voluntarism. There is a consensus among the social partners that the terms and conditions of employment of workers are best determined through the process of voluntary bargaining between employers and workers and between employers’ associations and one or more trade unions. This approach to industrial relations has served us well over the years.

In general, our laws do not try to impose a solution on parties to a trade dispute, but rather are designed to help support the parties in resolving their differences. The State has, by and large, confined its role to underpinning voluntarism through the provision of a framework and the industrial relations institutions that can assist in the resolution of disputes between employers and workers and through which good industrial relations can prosper.

The Government is focussed, through its investment in dispute resolution machinery, on making a real difference to the conduct of industrial relations in the country. A key feature of that investment has been the Labour Relations Commission. The Commission has been a very successful organisation, whether judged from the perspective of dispute settlement or from the perspective of dispute prevention.

The Commission’s record of success in dispute resolution is clear. The Conciliation Services consistently settles about 80% of all cases referred to it.

By the same token the Rights Commissioner Service resolves the vast majority of all cases referred to it. The work of the Service has increased dramatically in recent years with the growth and coverage of new employment rights statutes and EU directives, an increasing workforce and greater awareness of employment rights. The Commission’s Client Survey reflects the view that the Rights Commissioner Service is assuming a much greater importance in the eyes of users with an increasing complexity of cases brought before the Service.

We are all aware, however, that effectiveness in dispute resolution is not the whole story in making a difference to the conduct of industrial relations. The key to the long term health of an industrial relationship is, on the one hand, for parties to take the steps necessary to ensure that the relationship is effective and, on the other, that they can resolve differences themselves when they arise. The Labour Relations Commission has long understood this reality and has helped parties to industrial relationships right across the country to develop good communication mechanisms and good in-house dispute prevention and resolution arrangements.

Social Partnership

Social Partnership has played an important if not pivotal role in Ireland's dramatic economic and social development since 1987. Over the past twenty years, the successive social partnership agreements have reflected the unique challenges and opportunities of their time, and injected a substantial measure of stability and confidence for all sectors of the community, including investors.

It has created and sustained the conditions for remarkable employment growth, fiscal stability, restructuring of the economy to respond to new challenges and opportunities, a dramatic improvement in real living standards, through both lower taxation and lower inflation, and a culture of dialogue which has served the social partners, but more importantly, the people of this country very well indeed.

Moreover, all social partnership agreements have included provisions for the orderly processing of grievances and disputes and frameworks dealing with industrial peace and the pursuit of industrial action in regard to matters covered by the agreements. An indication of the impact of this aspect of the agreements is given by the trend over the period of reduction in days lost because of industrial action, from 260,000 days in 1987 to just over 6,000 days in 2007, the lowest since records began in 1923. Indeed, 2007 was the fourth year since 2002 that has produced a new record low for workdays lost to industrial disputes. These figures are a testimony to the strength and durability of partnership, whether at national or enterprise level, in tackling and finding solutions for shared problems. While there can be no room for complacency, these statistics reflect the stability of the industrial relations environment and the increased willingness of employers, workers and trade unions to resolve potential disputes either at workplace level or, if necessary, through the utilisation of the available dispute settling services, such as the Labour Relations Commission and the Labour Court.

Needless to say, social partnership was not solely responsible for the dramatic turnaround in our economic and social fortunes. But social partnership was a key factor because it enabled us, Government, employers, trade unions, farmers and, in due course, the community and voluntary sector, to develop a consensus about the overall direction of our economic and social policy and to work together to achieve our shared vision of the future.

I would like to mention some recent developments regarding issues that are of particular importance relevance to the industrial relations landscape at the moment.

Employment Rights Compliance Bill

Yesterday I published the Government’s Employment Rights Compliance Bill, 2008 which will completely overhaul the State’s employment rights framework.

This Bill will modernise the labour inspectorate, strengthen enforcement of employment rights and work permits, promote greater compliance in the workplace and increase the penalties for those employers who seek to gain advantage by denying employees their entitlements under law”.

The measures proposed in the Bill include:

• Establishment of the National Employment Rights Authority (NERA) on a statutory basis, including appointment by the Minister of the Director and a tripartite Advisory Board;
• Strengthening powers in the area of labour inspection including allowing the Director to take evidence on oath, ensuring labour inspectors have greater access to premises, personnel and data and empowering NERA to prosecute summary offences;
• Empowering labour inspectors in NERA to examine employment permits and to prosecute offences and to conduct investigations jointly with other agencies including Revenue Commissioners, Social Welfare inspectors and An Garda Síochána.
• Provision for greater penalties for offences arising under employment law – in most cases up to €5,000 and/or 12 months’ imprisonment for summary offences and €250,000 and/or 3 years’ imprisonment for indictable offences;

Other measures covered by the new Bill include:

• Protection of whistleblowers in the event of breaches of employment law being reported in good faith;
• Specification of a comprehensive list of documents which must be kept by the employer in respect of the most recent three year employment period and must be retained by employers for a further two years after the employment relationship ends;

The Bill will be supplemented by further amendments to existing employment legislation to be tabled by me for consideration by the Oireachtas. These amendments will include provision, in line with a commitment in Towards 2016, to apply the general limit of 104 weeks' remuneration for compensation which may be awarded by a rights adjudication body to employees for denial of entitlements by their employers, where a lower limit applies at present. As may be necessary, a provision will also be included to make it clear that the terms of a Registered Employment Agreement or Employment Regulation Order apply to any employee who undertakes work to which such an Agreement or Order applies.

This Bill is the most significant single piece of legislation introduced in the employment rights area in recent years. It is a comprehensive package and a firm indication of this government’s commitment to the principles of social partnership. It is a reminder that, in the drive for greater competitiveness, there is a need to ensure that responsible employers who meet their obligations to employees will have a level playing field. Compliance with all aspects of employment law will be strictly enforced including in the employment permits area, national minimum wage, registered employment agreements and protection of young persons in employment.

Employment Agency Regulation Bill

Proposals for an Employment Agency Regulation Bill, which will update and strengthen the regulation of the employment agency sector, have now been agreed by Government. The Office of the Parliamentary Counsel has been asked to draft the Bill as a matter of priority. Publication of the proposed Bill continues to be a priority for Government.

The Bill will provide for the licensing of employment agencies, which will maximise the agreed commitments in Towards 2016 on this matter while at the same time remaining consistent with EC Treaty provisions as interpreted by European Court of Justice rulings in the case of posted and agency workers.

In addition, adherence to a statutory Code of Practice will be a condition for the granting of a licence in Ireland under the Bill. The Bill will also provide for the setting up of a Monitoring and Advisory Committee to advise me in relation to the sector and assist me in the drawing up of the Code of Practice.

The Government is aware of the issues which have recently been raised in the context of the demand for equal treatment for agency workers. Issues were raised in the context of a Private Members’ Bill on this subject recently debated in the Seanad. Clearly, the issues raised in the Private Members’ Bill will be a feature of further consideration in the forthcoming pay talks. A number of very significant matters require much fuller consideration with the social partners and it is for this reason that the Government considered the Private Members’ Bill before the Seanad to be premature in this context.

Let me be quite clear, the Government is deeply committed to maintaining decent standards of employment and that these should apply to temporary agency workers. Indeed protection is already provided to temporary agency workers by the existing body of Irish employment rights legislation. These are enforced through the now substantially increased resources in place with the establishment of NERA, and through a full complement of labour inspectors.

Code of Practice on Information and Consultation

My colleague Billy Kelleher, Minister for Labour Affairs, will shortly be launching the Code of Practice on Information and Consultation, – another example of the LRC’s excellent work. The purpose of the Code is to assist employers, employees and their representatives to develop effective arrangements for information and consultation in accordance with the provisions of the Employees (Provision of Information and Consultation) Act 2006. The Code will assist employers and employees in implementing the provisions of the legislation.

The aim of the legislation is to ensure that information and consultation is provided by employers systematically so that employees are able to acquire an informed understanding of the challenges faced by the business. In this context it is important that workers’ entitlements are spelt out and clearly understood. While the legislation provides statutory rights and obligations, the Code of Practice is intended to assist organisations to see information and consultation as intrinsic elements in good employee/employer relations, and as leading to positive impacts on performance and the workplace.

The Labour Relations Commission has consulted closely with ICTU and IBEC in drawing up this Code and drew on the deep experience it has gained from delivering its advisory, conciliation, dispute resolution and research services. I believe the Code will greatly assist both employers and employees in gaining a clear understanding of what is required under the Act.

It will be formally declared a Code under the Industrial Relations Act 1990 and I would urge all employers and employees to use it. It is an excellent reference document for identifying best practice in the area of information and consultation.

Thank you

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