Mr. Kieran Mulvey:

I thank the Chairman and members for extending an invitation to the Labour Relations Commission to make its observations on the general scheme of the Industrial Relations (Amendment) Bill 2014.

First of all, I apologise. I sent down a draft of our observations on the Workplace Relations Bill and it was brought to my attention last Friday that I had sent the committee the wrong observations in terms of the other Bill. I have amended that to forward the committee my observations.

It is important at the outset for me to clarify that the Labour Relations Commission has not had statutory responsibility with regard to the operation of joint industrial councils or indeed registered employment agreements in the past. It is clear that the new Bill will not afford responsibility for the registration of agreements to the Labour Relations Commission-workplace relations commission. The commission has had no role in the development of the current draft legislation and that is appropriate.

The commission historically has assisted the operation of joint industrial councils through the provision of its staff, when requested, as chairs of various councils, although not all councils. These are experienced conciliation officers of the commission. In particular, the commission has had a long involvement with the operation of the construction industry national joint industrial council and the electrical contracting industry national joint industrial council, which are two of the more eminent and active joint industrial councils. The commission is hopeful that the new legislation will facilitate the employers and trade unions in such sectors to conclude sector applicable agreements, although it is not entirely clear whether it will do so.

The parties' wish to have the officers of the commission chair certain councils over the years has been a reflection of the parties' commitment to achieving consensus wherever possible in the process of developing proposed registered employment agreements for the consideration of the Labour Court. The new Bill carries an emphasis on finding agreement on matters between employers and trade unions and that is an objective clearly consistent with the achievement of harmonious industrial relations in the economy. I think the Minister of State placed particular emphasis on this earlier. We must recall that harmonious industrial relations and industrial peace are a very important part of the economic activity of the State. Compared to some of our European counterparts, we enjoy a particularly good industrial relations environment in this country. Over the past number of years, the number of disputes involving workers has been at an all-time low.

The commission has a clear statutory function of promoting good industrial relations. In that light, the commission supports the concept of registered employment agreements as a means of facilitating employers and trade unions to come together to establish the basic arrangements to apply to the employment relationship in a given industry or sector. The commission believes that competition between entities on the basic cost of labour is inimical to the achievement of harmonious industrial relations in some sectors of the economy. The commission, therefore, believes that the structure provided by registered employment agreements, if capable of producing sector applicable agreements, is important to the effective operation of some sectors.

The construction industry, for example, has always been an industry characterised by competition between employers for business in the particular context of that industry. I think most employers and trade unions would agree that the achievement of reasonable levels of industrial peace in this industry through various cycles has been largely attributable to the existence of a structured capacity on the part of the parties to remove the cost of labour from otherwise intense competition across the sector.

I believe that the provisions contained in the Bill, in particular, heads 6 and 10, setting out a requirement that all registered agreements will contain dispute resolution provisions involving the future workplace relations commission and the Labour Court is very important. The history of engagement in this type of structure has been characterised by a capacity on the part of parties to resolve disputes through dialogue and negotiation. The work of the Labour Relations Commission and the Labour Court is focused on empowering employers and trade unions to achieve agreement between themselves and the Bill underlines the value of this approach.

Key to the effective operation of registered employment agreements is compliance. This is a big challenge for all of us. The Bill sets out in head 27 that the Minister is preparing arrangements consistent with the Workplace Relations Bill in this regard. Fundamentally, this likely to involve a significant role for the former inspectorate of NERA, which will be the future workplace relations commission. Operationally, this poses challenges in terms of ensuring effective compliance and my priority as a director general designate will be to enhance the achievement of compliance with registered employment agreements by utilising all of the compliance and enforcement mechanisms which are part of the new Workplace Relations Bill.

These arrangements include increased powers and capacities on the part of compliance officers, as well as enhanced inter-agency capacities on the part of the Workplace Relations Commission. If the Bill becomes law, the work programme of the future Workplace Relations Commission will have a focus on compliance with registered employment agreements. I note, for the information of the committee, that the inspection services of NERA have handled over 4,688 cases to date in 2014, in which the incidence of breach has been high at 43%. These cases have covered 72,634 employees and resulted in the recovery of unpaid wages of almost €720,000.

The Labour Relations Commission welcomes the legislation and its intent. Allied to the Workplace Relations Bill, the rationalisation of dispute resolution bodies, the enhancement of the work of the inspectorate which will become a body of compliance officers and the collective bargaining focus of the Workplace Relations Commission as exemplified by the current conciliation service provided by the Labour Relations Commission, the draft Bill will assist considerably to ensure we create harmonious relations in so far as possible and reasonable within the confines of the human condition among employers, trade unions, their representative bodies and employees. It is vital for those employees who are sometimes outside the comfort blanket of formal representation to ensure in so far as possible that the floor rights of employment rights are observed and adhered to by all and, where possible, enhanced. I understand that in the circumstances that previously obtained enhanced mechanisms were overturned by the Supreme Court, but we must balance the fact that engagement, negotiation and voluntary agreement have led to the industrial peace we enjoy.