Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour) | Oireachtas source

As the Deputy is aware, I recently published the heads of the proposed industrial relations (amendment) Bill 2014. The heads of the Bill are available and are currently the subject of pre-legislative scrutiny by the Joint Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation. I will set out the two main purposes of the Bill. First, it will provide for the reintroduction of a mechanism for the registration of employment agreements between an employer or employers and trade unions governing terms and conditions in individual enterprises. Such enterprise-level agreements will not be legally binding beyond the individual enterprise. It would not be constitutionally permissible to legislate in that way. Prior to the Supreme Court ruling in the McGowan case, enterprise-level registered employment agreements were not given general application on a sector-wide basis.

Separately, the Bill will provide for a new statutory framework for the establishment of minimum rates of remuneration and other terms and conditions of employment for a specified type, class or group of workers, particularly in the context of transnational provision of services and in the context of promoting harmonious relations between workers. In effect, this will be a framework to replace the former sectoral registered employment agreements system, which included the construction and electrical contracting sector. In this context, the new framework proposes a mechanism whereby, in future, at the request separately or jointly of organisations substantially representative of employers and-or workers, the court can initiate a review of the pay, pension and sick pay entitlements of workers in a particular sector. If it deems it appropriate, it will be able to make a recommendation to the Minister on the matter. If the Minister is satisfied that the process provided for in the new legislation has been complied with by the Labour Court, he shall make the order. The standard provisions dealing with the laying of orders before the Oireachtas are proposed. Where such an order is made in relation to a class, type or group of workers, it will be binding across the sector to which it relates and will be enforceable by the National Employment Rights Authority.

This mechanism is constitutionally robust compared with the previous registered employment agreement system, which was struck down by the Supreme Court. Prior to the enactment of the Industrial Relations (Amendment) Act 2012, that system provided for employment agreements between trade unions and employer representatives to be given general application by being registered by the Labour Court. As enterprise-level agreements never were and will not be legally binding beyond the subscribing parties, the same constitutional issues regarding the delegation of legislative authority to the Minister that arose in the McGowan case do not apply in such cases.

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