Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein)
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I welcome the workers and union representatives who are in the Visitors Gallery. The Paris Bakery on Moore Street has closed its doors. This type of event is always a sad occasion. People are out of work and wondering from where the next pay cheque will come or how they will pay the next bill or even put bread on the table. For the workers in the Paris Bakery these concerns have been to the forefront of their minds for over three months. That is how long the employees of Ruth Savill and Yannick Forel have been without wages and working for free, in the hope that ultimately matters would be resolved and they would receive their remuneration.

When the owners of the Paris Bakery decided to lock the doors and lock their workers out it became all too apparent to these mainly young migrant workers that they had a fight on their hands. Staff are owed over €55,000 in unpaid wages. The owners profited from their free work. It is said that the owners also owe approximately €200,000 in unpaid taxes and a PRSI payment as well. One of the owners has a stud farm, which is the type of business that already pays a tiny level of tax. Some of the staff have already been made homeless due to the refusal of the owners to pay wages. Others, having lost everything, were forced to borrow money to leave the country. They are now in debt outside this country due to the bad practice of the owners of the Paris Bakery.

The workers who remain decided that drastic action was necessary and began to occupy the premises of the Paris Bakery to protest against and highlight their mistreatment.

It is bad enough that we demean and mistreat those who cannot find work and exploit young people with JobBridge scams, but the State cannot allow workers in employment to be mistreated so severely. The fundamental premise of an economy is that a fair day's work deserves a fair day's wage, which is exactly what these workers are being denied having given their labour in good faith. What the owners of the Paris Bakery have done should be a criminal offence and they should be liable to be arrested and charged.

The Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Joan Burton, met the workers last night, which I welcome. I ask that the Government do all it can to offer help and support to these workers and bring a resolution to the problem. The State has a responsibility to intervene in such cases of abuse and unjust behaviour by employers and business owners. Owed wages should be paid and workers compensated for the hardship they have had to endure over recent weeks and months. It is not good enough to go off and establish another business while leaving a trail of misery and deprivation behind. We must ensure that people get what is owed to them, whether it is redundancy payment, wages, holiday pay or another benefit. We call ourselves a modern society, but have antiquated laws and need the proper workers' rights the Government promised. When will this happen? We need actions and solutions, not ministerial visits with no follow-up. I call on employers to do the right thing and I call on the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Bruton, to intervene due to the hardships these workers have endured.

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Ellis for raising the matter. I share his concern at the worrying situation that has evolved. I hope the concerns of the employees can be addressed to their satisfaction quickly and that they can end the sit-in. NERA met with representatives of the employees last Friday and informed them of their rights, entitlements and means of redress. NERA has also provided continuing contact details and is in active contact not only with the employees but with the employer to resolve the situation.

Deputy Ellis raised the issue of workers' rights. Ireland has a significant body of employment rights which are enshrined in legislation, including the Payment of Wages Act 1991, which contains protections for employees and provides a means of redress for employees who have not received their full wages from an employer. Non-payment of wages or any deficiency in the amount of wages properly payable by an employer to an employee on any occasion will be regarded as an unlawful deduction from wages unless the deficiency or non-payment is attributable to an error of computation. The Payment of Wages Act 1991 provides for a right of complaint to a rights commissioner for any employee who has not received his or her wages or who has had an unlawful deduction made. A complaint must be presented to a rights commissioner using the prescribed form within six months of the deduction or non-payment giving rise to the complaint. I understand that at this point no such application has been made in this case.

A number of other employee rights come into play in the circumstances of the closure of a business, including minimum notice and redundancy rights. Under the Minimum Notice and Terms of Employment Acts, an employee with a minimum of 13 weeks' service with an employer is entitled to notice of termination of employment. The length of the notice to which an employee is entitled is dependent on length of service and can range from one week's notice for an individual with less than two years' service up to eight weeks' notice where an employee has more than 15 years' service. Where an employer is unable or fails to provide the appropriate notice, such employer may make a payment in lieu of the notice. An employee who does not receive the minimum notice to which he or she is entitled may take a case to the Employment Appeals Tribunal.

Under the Protection of Employment Act 1977, companies proposing collective redundancies - i.e. those in which at least 20 people are employed - must enter into consultations with the employee representatives at least 30 days before anyone receives notice of redundancy. They must also notify the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation of the proposed redundancies at least 30 days before any employee receives notice of redundancy. Consultation with the employee representatives and the notification period for the Minister can run concurrently. I understand that no notice of redundancy has been served by the employer in this case.

In accordance with the Redundancy Payments Acts 1967 to 2012, employees who have at least two years' continuous service with an employer are generally entitled to a statutory redundancy payment in the event of being made redundant. The administration of the redundancy payments legislation is within the remit of my colleague, the Minister for Social Protection, who has advised that it is the responsibility of the employer to pay statutory redundancy to all eligible employees. However, where an employer can prove to the satisfaction of the Department of Social Protection that he or she is unable to pay statutory redundancy to his or her eligible employees, the Department will make lump sum payments directly to those employees. Such payments are made from the Social Insurance Fund and result in a debt being raised against the employer which the Department of Social Protection will seek to recover. Where an employer either fails to comply with his or her redundancy payment obligations or where there is a dispute regarding redundancy entitlements, claims may be referred by the employee to the Employment Appeals Tribunal.

Where an employer is legally insolvent and, as a result, defaults on payment of wages and other entitlements, an employee may also be entitled to seek redress from the State under the insolvency payments scheme. These payments also cover overtime, holiday pay, sick pay, etc. In these circumstances, redundancy payment entitlements may also be met from the social insurance fund. I have been informed by the Minister for Social Protection that she has received no formal notifications from the company. A company may be put into liquidation by its members. An alternative is that the company's creditors may apply to the courts to have the company put into liquidation. Employees owed wages or other payments count as creditors and would be entitled to apply to have the company put into liquidation.

If the employees and the employer agree that conciliation or another form of intervention might assist in resolving some of the difficulties they are facing, the State's industrial relations machinery is available to assist in this dispute if required. Often, what appear to be the most intractable disputes are capable of resolution where both sides engage constructively and in good faith in this voluntary process. The principle of good faith implies that both sides in a dispute make every effort to reach an agreement and endeavour through genuine and constructive negotiations to resolve their differences. Ireland's system of industrial relations is, essentially, voluntary in nature, and responsibility for the resolution of industrial disputes between employers and workers, whether in redundancy or other collective disputes, rests with the employer, the workers and their representatives. However, the State provides an industrial relations dispute settlement mechanism to support parties in their efforts to resolve their differences. All of the agencies and bodies under the remit of my Department remain available to the parties should this be of assistance.

Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Minister for his reply. It is clear that this employer has not engaged with either the employees or the Departments. It is very clear from what the Minister said. It is outrageous that workers should be treated like this. Many of them have even left the country. Some do not have bread on the table, cannot pay their rent and are living like homeless people. It is a scandal that it should happen in this day and age.

There is now an onus on the Minister to adopt a far more hands-on approach and to push these employers. It is not the first time we have seen this. It has happened on a good number of occasions. The way the workers have been treated in this case is the worst example we have seen. It is high time the Minister tells these employers that they must live up to this. It is very strange that the company is supposed to be moving to another premises. Those involved have money to go off and set up a new business elsewhere while at the same time the employees are punished. It is scandalous. We need intervention and pressure to be brought to bear on these companies. That we do not have proper workers' rights is very clear from the way these employers have handled the case. We are behind in terms of workers' rights.

We need to strengthen that and put it up to these employers. They cannot be allowed to treat people like this - it does not matter who they are. They should not be allowed to do it.

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy has raised a number of points about this disturbing situation. I cannot comment on the veracity of some of the points made by the Deputy. If there is a serious case of unpaid taxes, it is a matter for the Revenue Commissioners. The Revenue Commissioners have extensive powers in respect of any company that fails or has unpaid taxes, including the power to put such a company into liquidation.

NERA is the enforcement agency on behalf of the Department and is engaging with both sides and it has certain powers. As outlined in my reply, there are ways in which justifiable unpaid wages can be pursued through the Rights Commissioner Service or, in certain cases, through the Employment Appeals Tribunal. That route exists and, to date, it has not been activated.

Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein)
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There are time factors.

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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None of the triggers that can be pursued have been activated. As creditors, the employees have the power to initiate an action to seek to get the company to wind up. I recognise the difficulty with payment where a company does not actively declare insolvency. Under the current legislation, the insolvency fund can be triggered only in the event that the company approaches the Department or is insolvent. That issue is being examined by the Department of Social Protection in respect of whether changes need to be made. In this situation, NERA is engaging with both sides and none of the mechanisms, either redundancy or the rights commissioner mechanism, have been activated. The services of my Department continue to be available through NERA or, if necessary, through the Labour Relations Commission to assist in the case. I hope we can come to a solution. The agencies are actively engaged. The Deputy may want to add material in light of the statements he made in respect of the Revenue Commissioners.