Mr. Brian Nolan:

It is my understanding from when we engaged with NERA during the previous registered employment agreement that while NERA has a wealth of knowledge in terms of the different industries and sectors, manpower is a difficulty for it. At the time there were fewer than 100 inspectors to cover every sector of industry. At the time, if I am not mistaken, there was a particular initiative relating to restaurants and NERA carried out a covert operation which required a lot of focus. Construction goes on all day, every day and breaches have the potential to happen at any point in time. Having people with a little knowledge of everything is not enough. We need people who have their feet on the ground and who are able to engage with workers. They must have a relationship with the order or the agreement to which an order might be attached, which is important.

Previously, with registered employment agreements, we had a mechanism where union members, regardless of the particular union, could very easily revert back to whichever union they were in to question whether their entitlements were being breached. The authors of the agreements on the one hand were the unions on behalf of workers, so they were in the best position to advise and then pursue the non-compliant contractors. Our view on how to fix the situation might differ from other people but at least one other employer said at the meeting that NERA might not be the fix that is required because it does not have the capacity in terms of manpower and that it is not close enough as it cannot focus all the time on this one industry. We share that concern.