Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Workplace Relations Act 2015 gives Workplace Relations Commission inspectors the power of inspection and enforcement. Enabling union representatives to monitor compliance would duplicate existing regulation in this area and create an unnecessary and overlapping legislative layer of workplace inspection law.

Currently, Workplace Relations Commission inspectors have the statutory right to enter an employer's premises and oblige the owner to give information as requested. Workplace Relations Commission inspectors may also issue compliance notices as well as fixed-payment notices to employers for non-compliance, which may ultimately lead to a criminal offence.

There are also serious data protections concerns emanating from the Bill. The power to monitor compliance would require an employer, as the data controller, to disclose personal data of workers to a third party which would give rise to serious concerns under the Data Protection Acts.

Section 8B of Bill ambiguously provides that discussions between a worker and an employer must "not exceed a reasonable duration". However, the Bill fails to define what is a reasonable duration. This is very vague legal drafting. The Bill also requires employers to reply to such a request "no later than the working day after the day on which the request was made". This seems quite rigid and disproportionate.

I note Sinn Féin's criticism of our position. I measure this against how it treats its own employees, which I read about in the newspapers over the weekend. I did not see any reference to trade union representation or indeed-----

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