Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 1:

In page 6, between lines 24 and 25, to insert the following: “(b) by the insertion of the following subsection after subsection (1):

“(1A) Where a European Works Council stands established pursuant to the Transnational Information and Consultation of Employees Act 1996 in relation to the employment in which it is proposed to create collective redundancies, the employer or responsible person shall, in addition to the requirements of subsection (1), with a view to reaching agreement, initiate consultation with the European Works Council.”,”.

The Minister of State will be aware that representatives of both Irish and European trade unions as well as Irish and European businesses stakeholders, along with the European Commission, have identified that the Irish legislation transposing the European works council, EWC, directive, the Transnational Information and Consultation of Employees Act 1996, as amended, fails to make it clear that disputes involving EWCs can be referred to the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, in the first instance, and then to the Labour Court for a legally binding decision. It appears that the Department rejects this argument and points to recent references of EWC disputes to the WRC and now to the Labour Court.

However, these disputes concern individual members of EWCs who believe that their rights have been denied. The Department’s position does not address the point that EWCs as collective bodies do not appear to have a right of access to the WRC or the court. This leaves us out of line with other EU jurisdictions.

Substantial disputes can arise between EWCs and management when job losses involving collective redundancies occur, which come under the remit of what we are discussing. The amendment makes it clear that where Irish-based European works councils need to be informed and consulted over job losses or redundancies, they will have access to the State’s dispute resolution procedures if the need arises. This would be a first step in correcting the gaps in the legislation.

The Minister of State may take the position that the EU Commission will soon publish proposals to revise the EWC directive and changes to the Irish legislation should await the outcome of that process. With EU Parliament elections nearly upon us, and a new Commission to be appointed, it could be four to five years at the earliest before Irish EWC law would be changed. That is too long to wait to correct a problem that we could correct here this afternoon.

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