Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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2. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if the Workplace Relations Bill will provide protections for workers employed by subcontractors engaged in exploitative work practices. [39379/14]

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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Guím gach rath ar na hAirí ar fad agus ar an bhfoireann nua. I tabled this question to determine whether the forthcoming workplace relations Bill will provide protection to workers, especially those employed by subcontractors engaged in exploitative work practices. In that context, I want to make particular reference to the ongoing publicly funded Kishoge Community College building project. As the Minister of State will be aware, a large number of workers have had their livelihoods significantly damaged by practices there and I want to find out what the provisions of the new Bill will do for those individuals.

Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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I thank Deputy Tóibín for his question. As he will be aware, the ongoing programme that the Government is currently implementing to reform the State’s existing workplace relations structures is at quite an advanced stage. While considerable progress has been achieved to date on an administrative basis, the enactment of the workplace relations Bill is a crucial step in achieving the aim of delivering a modern, user-friendly, world-class workplace relations system. The Bill will provide for a range of enhanced compliance measures, including the use of compliance notices, fixed payment notices and a new more robust mechanism for enforcing awards of the workplace relations commission, WRC, adjudicators and Labour Court determinations. This represents a very significant development for working people and will give teeth to the system. It will enhance confidence in the workplace relations system and ensure that the response from the WRC to complaints is proportionate.

The workplace relations Bill is primarily concerned with the establishment of new structures and associated processes. The Bill will provide for the establishment of a new two-tier workplace relations structure comprising two statutorily independent bodies, replacing the current five. The Bill does not propose any substantive changes to existing legislation governing the employment rights of workers. Therefore, the protections currently available to workers under the existing corpus of employment rights legislation will continue to apply to all workers, including workers employed by subcontractors. There is universal application of all of the employment legislation to workers of every description. This existing body of employment law is robust and covers a comprehensive range of employment rights and entitlements which apply to all workers, whether part-time or full-time and whether employed by a subcontractor or another class of employer. Furthermore, the legislation is backed up by a proactive labour inspectorate.

Should employees consider that their statutory employment rights are not being complied with, they should contact workplace relations customer service for information about seeking redress.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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As the Minister of State knows, the workers at the Kishoge Community College site have effectively been locked out of their place of employment because a subcontractor has demanded that they register as self-employed and accept excessively low rates of pay. Some of the rates we have heard of are less than €5 per hour or €20 per day. To be blunt, the Government's response so far has been overly bureaucratic. Indeed, I would argue that the Government has washed its hands of this issue. For months now, men with families have been outside their place of work doing their damnedest to draw attention to what is going on, but the Government is doing nothing about this issue. The citizens of this country who are purchasing this site and having the building done on their behalf through the State need to know that the work is being done in a way that respects common decency. They need to be assured that the law will ensure that these individuals get a proper day's pay for a day's work.

Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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With all due respect to Deputy Tóibín, that is not the question he originally tabled, which asked about subcontractors engaged in exploitative work practices. That said, I am very happy to respond to the supplementary question he has just posed. I know that Deputy Tóibín has a particular interest in this case, as do I, and we discussed it briefly at a recent meeting of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation. While I am reluctant to comment in individual cases, I know that the Revenue Commissioners, the Department of Social Protection and the National Employment Rights Authority, NERA, have had a presence on the aforementioned site and have investigated complaints made to them. I have been in contact with Deputy Tóibín by letter in respect of the broad issue to which he refers. The Deputy will be aware that it is the remit of the Revenue Commissioners and the Department of Social Protection to clarify the status of employees and it is the responsibility of the Revenue Commissioners to deal with the issuing of certification in respect of self-employment. All information received by my Department or NERA in this regard is forwarded to them for their attention. In that regard, I have forwarded correspondence from Deputy Tóibín to both the Revenue Commissioners and the Department of Social Protection.

It is important to point out that this must be viewed in the context of the re-establishment of the registered employment agreement system. This Government is committed to re-establishing that system and we are making significant progress in that regard.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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I understand that the Minister of State is working on particular projects and I am trying to ascertain whether those projects will close off all possibility of this type of exploitation in the future. We have had a collapse in the construction industry and that collapse has led to an overabundance of skilled construction workers who are unemployed and claiming social welfare. As a result, some employers have engaged in very sharp practices based on the principle of using the crisis to their own benefit. They have been exploiting individuals who are hungry for work and forcing them to work under improper pay terms and conditions. The situation at Kishoge Community College is an example of this and the dispute there has been going on for many weeks. Sinn Féin has asked for an urgent investigation into the circumstances there. Are the investigations by the Revenue Commissioners and NERA to which the Minister of State referred complete yet? If they are not complete, when are they expected to be completed? Where is the urgency on this? The people concerned are locked out of the site and winter is fast approaching.

The Government must review all of the projects under its remit and ensure that the contractors and subcontractors are behaving reasonably. If the key investigations are not complete, will the Minister of State commit to their completion ASAP?

Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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Investigations can only be completed and the issues fully examined with complete information. I appeal to everyone who claims to have information to bring it to the National Employment Rights Authority, NERA, the Revenue Commissioners and other relevant agencies-----

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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It has been nearly two months since the Revenue Commissioners were out there.

Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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-----and to work proactively with the inspectorate and bodies that are addressing this matter.

Deputy Tóibín is right. With the construction industry starting to climb again, we have seen an increase in the use of subcontractors by the sector's major employers. I reiterate the importance of re-establishing the registered employment agreement, REA, system. Its collapse provided the opportunity for some of these difficulties to arise. Its re-establishment could improve standards across the sector and is supported by the Construction Industry Federation, CIF, which is a major player on the employers' side, and the trade union sector. The drafting process is advancing and is one of my top priorities as Minister of State with responsibility for business and employment. We will have a pre-legislative scrutiny opportunity at the joint Oireachtas committee in the coming weeks to advance it further.