Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)

The Sinn Féin amendment proposes to insert one of the considerations that the JLC will be required to take into account in framing employment regulation orders into the principles and policies to be considered by the Labour Court in its periodic review of the establishment orders of the JLCs. Section 11 inserts a new section, section 41A, into the 1946 Act to provide that the Labour Court will, following the commencement of the Act and at regular five year intervals thereafter, conduct a review of all establishment orders in respect of existing JLCs. Following such a review, the Labour Court may recommend that a JLC be abolished or amalgamated with another JLC or that the establishment order of a JLC be amended.

The new subsection 41A(2) sets out criteria to which the Labour Court must have regard when carrying out a review of an employment regulation order. The Sinn Féin amendment proposes to add an additional criterion to the list, that is, the maintenance of a fair and sustainable rate of remuneration appropriate to the sector in question. It is considered that such a criterion is more appropriately taken into account in the formulation proposals for an employment regulation order rather than in approving the existence of a JLC covering a particular sector. In fact, such criteria are already provided for in section 12, in the list of principles and policies a JLC must have regard to when formulating proposals for employment regulation orders.

The provision in the Bill deals with the consideration of whether a JLC continues to have relevance, whether the sector has changed to such an extent that the existence of the JLC is no longer appropriate and whether it should be amalgamated with another JLC. The section specifies the matters that should be considered, including "the class or classes of workers to which the joint labour committee applies", "changes in the trade or business to which the joint labour committee applies", "types of enterprises to which the joint labour committee applies", "the experience of ... enforcement" and "the impact on employment levels". It is a process for considering whether the JLC is still relevant and whether it is to the benefit of workers and the sector.

Adding the provision suggested by Deputy Tóibín might make it impossible to change the structure. If there is, for example, a brush and broom JLC and we statutorily require it to maintain a fair and sustainable rate of remuneration in the brush and broom sector, we may find there is only one company in the brush and broom sector and the existence of a whole JLC structure is not appropriate. In that case the Labour Court may decide it should be amalgamated with another body. By attempting to insert something that is relevant to the order rather than to the continued existence of the JLC, Deputy Tóibín is mixing up the criteria in a way that is not helpful. That is generally accepted by the social partners who were consulted on this. This is a way of making sure the joint labour committee, JLC, structures remain geared to the sectors they seek to regulate. That is what is at the heart of this. It is solely concerned with the scope and structure rather than the rates of projection provided within the employment regulation order, ERO. A different task is being undertaken here.

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