Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

As I explained to the Deputy, the general principle is that registered agreements such as this form the basis upon which rates of pay are set. Obviously, this is not simply a legal issue. I acknowledge there have been challenges by various employer bodies to the actual basis of the registered employment agreement, REA, itself. However, the position is that were it a simple case as outlined by the Deputy, I am sure the issue would have been resolved by now.

The Labour Court hearing on the electrical registered employment agreement took place in June 2008, when it held an hearing to consider an application to vary that agreement to provide for the 5% increase due from April 2008. However, a stay was placed by the High Court on the court proceeding with the hearing, following a challenge by a group of independent electrical contractors. This stay eventually was lifted by the High Court in October, to allow the Labour Court to proceed. Subsequently, over 11 days in January and February 2009, the Labour Court heard applications both to vary the existing electrical contracting REA and to cancel the registration of the REA. The proposed variation would have involved an increase to the minimum pay rates set out in the registered employment agreement. That application to vary was opposed by one of the bodies representing electrical contractors, which sought to have the registration cancelled.

On 26 February, the Labour Court made its decision in respect of the electrical REA. The lengthy decision covered the applications firstly to vary the agreement and secondly to cancel the agreement. In respect of the application to vary it, as there was no agreement among the employer bodies party to the registered employment agreement to so do, the application was refused. The court also rejected the application to cancel the agreement. Having regard to all the circumstances of the case, the court came to the view that the changes in the electrical contracting industry since the registration of the REA have not made it undesirable to maintain its registration. Accordingly, the court did not propose to cancel the registration of the agreement. That decision now is the subject of a judicial review challenge.

In the course of its decision, the court noted that, on balance, it was satisfied that as a matter of probability, rates of pay would decline in the sector in the absence of the REA. It therefore noted that while the case was adhering regarding the court, it indicated that it might be desirable to make recommendations on certain matters of an industrial relations nature - one should leave out the courts for the present - that were raised in the course of the hearings. None of the parties objected to it so doing and the Labour Court made recommendations in respect of rates of pay and the review of the REA, which are outlined in its lengthy recommendation.

The issue in this regard is simple. A dispute is under way but we have industrial relations machinery by which it can be resolved. It is important that everyone takes on the responsibility of getting this dispute resolved. I believe the means still exist by which this can be done using the industrial relations machinery, were people so minded. We have a voluntary basis for industrial relations in Ireland and cannot impose a solution. However, we need both parties to use the machinery that is available and to enter negotiations while minded to move from respective positions in a manner that will achieve an outcome that is fair and reasonable in all the circumstances.

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