Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. As I am not familiar with the particular situation to which she referred, I will comment generally on the overall situation when companies are taken over or there is a transfer of undertakings. I do not have the details of the case she raised but I certainly will get them and look into the situation. I was not aware of the company to which the Deputy was referring until she mentioned it just now.

The European Communities (Protection of Employees on Transfer of Undertakings) Regulations 2003 , often referred to as the TUPE regulations, may apply to any transfer of an undertaking, business or part of a business from one employer to another as a result of a legal transfer, including the assignment or forfeiture of a lease, or merger. I am not sure what the circumstances are in this particular case because I did not have the information the Deputy does. As I said, I will keep my answer general. In such situations, employees, in general, are protected and have rights under these regulations, which deal with the transfer of those rights to a new employer. The regulations safeguard employees' rights in situations where a transfer falls within the definition contained in the regulations. They provide that all the rights and obligations of an employer under a contract of employment, including terms inserted by collective agreements, other than pension rights, are transferred to the new employer on the transfer of the business or part thereof. The new employer must continue to observe the terms and conditions of any collective agreements until they expire or are replaced. Furthermore, an employee may not be dismissed by reason of the transfer alone. However, dismissals may take place for economic, technical or organisational reasons involving changes in the workforce.

Both the outgoing and incoming employers are obliged to inform their respective employees' representatives of, inter alia, the reasons for the transfer and the legal, social and economic implications of that transfer. Where there are no representatives, the employers must arrange for the employees to choose representatives for this purpose. The Deputy mentioned a particular union and I assume that union will be involved in this case. If not, employees should come together and appoint someone to be their representative. The affected employees must be given the above information not later than 30 days before or, in any event, in good time before, the transfer, or, in the case of the transferee, before its employees will be affected by the transfer. The Deputy referred to a period of six or seven weeks. In all these situations, there should be good communication between all parties in order that everyone knows what is going on. There should be no surprises, which is a comment I would make in general concerning the relationship between employer and employees in any business.

Where an employee considers that a breach of the regulations has occurred, a complaint may be made to an adjudication officer of the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, and appeals therefrom to the Labour Court. Regarding the case the Deputy outlined, I would rather see companies engaging with employees in these situations to work things out. I presume there is time for that to be done and I hope the employees engage with their unions and work through this in a sensible way. They have protections under Irish law. I am happy to engage further with the Deputy on the matter.

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