Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)

That is not the point. The Government seeks to achieve good practice and to get in place a compliance culture among employers, not to introduce an obligation that sets out in primary legislation time limits and time lines in a highly precise way that could lead to unexpected and unnecessary outcomes, while still ensuring that there is a robust system in which a worker who has not got a fair deal has the absolute right to go to the rights commissioner. There will be in place a service that will stream away such a case if it clearly is a matter of clarifying the facts. There will be a quick move to contact the employer to outline the facts as presented, to note that the matter appears to be straightforward and to query the reason the employer is not dealing with it. Consequently, putting this proposal into primary legislation effectively is a form of coat-trailing and will not really have any effect unless Members introduce or anticipate that employers can be challenged for failing to do this and that on the 15th day, such employers have in some way failed and a provision can then be triggered to pursue them.

This is not the way in which to proceed in such a case. The Government's intention is to avoid contention of this nature, whereby someone who took action on the 15th day should have done so on the 14th day and the matter then goes before the rights commissioner as another case to be investigated. This is not the approach, as I am trying to get reasonableness and to build up a compliance culture among employers. That is the purpose of the reform the Government seeks to introduce in the employment rights area. It is not to set highly rigid rules and regulations but to get a general compliance culture and a system that supports such a culture for employers and workers, as well as a flexible employment rights and industrial relations approach in which there is compliance first, conciliation next and hearings of disputes only in extremely difficult and intractable cases. This is the approach and while I accept the spirit in which this amendment is being offered, I cannot accept it as an item of primary legislation. However, I will ensure the guidelines my Department sets out and the practices it seeks to promote will be sympathetic to what the Deputies are trying to achieve.

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