Tony Killeen (Clare, Fianna Fail)

The labour inspectorate contacted the principal parties in the ESB dispute on Tuesday, 13 March 2006 and subsequently met senior representatives of the ESB and its agents. These contacts have been ongoing since and considerable progress has been made.

The enforcement of employment rights is often characterised as a discrete function undertaken solely by the labour inspectorate. There is an extensive corpus of legislation providing for a range of obligations and entitlements for both employers and employees. The employment rights arena is populated by various bodies, for example, the Labour Court. As always, there is scope for improvement but the solution is not to just simply appoint additional labour inspectors.

The challenge in a rapidly growing economy is to ensure adequate, timely and effective enforcement of compliance with statutory and other provisions. This was recognised in Sustaining Progress. Arising from commitments then, the Government has completed reviews of the employment rights bodies, the mandate and resourcing of the labour inspectorate, the joint labour committee system. Each of these reviews has been completed and follow-on work is now in train.

The broad question of sustaining employment standards and initiatives to ensure employment rights compliance is being addressed as a priority in the current round of national partnership talks. Individuals may also take their cases before a commissioner in the rights commissioner service of the Labour Relations Commission.

There is a commitment to a campaign of dissemination on obligations and entitlements arising under employment rights legislation. The campaign will be targeted at both employers and employees and will focus on particular audiences such as those engaged in sectors now generally populated by non-Irish workers.

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