Results 13,301-13,320 of 32,583 for speaker:Richard Bruton

Seanad: Workplace Relations Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 Feb 2015)

Richard Bruton: I will have to come back to the Senator. I do not understand it myself.

Seanad: Workplace Relations Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 Feb 2015)

Richard Bruton: Section 43 provides that if a case has been dismissed by an adjudication officer on the grounds that it is frivolous or vexatious, the complainant will have the right to appeal this decision to the Labour Court. The Labour Court, upon hearing an appeal, may affirm the decision of the adjudication officer or annul that decision and refer the complaint back to the adjudication officer...

Seanad: Workplace Relations Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 Feb 2015)

Richard Bruton: This amendment would go against what the Bill is trying to achieve, by providing a single fast, effective, independent and streamlined adjudication process. It proposes that a separate hearing would be convened to deal with the equality aspects of a case, separate from the employment aspects. If there was an employment and an equality aspect to the case, this could result in four separate...

Seanad: Workplace Relations Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 Feb 2015)

Richard Bruton: Amendment No. 77 proposes that an adjudication would be halted and referred back to the mediation, with the consent of both parties. To refer the dispute formally back to mediation would add time and cost to the entire process. It would possibly be twice as expensive to the State, given that there would be the cost of the first mediation, the first adjudication, the cost of mediation where...

Seanad: Workplace Relations Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 Feb 2015)

Richard Bruton: Subsections 6 and 8 of section 42, read together, provide that the standard limitation period for bringing a complaint under employment and equality legislation will be six months from the relevant date, extendable for a further six months by an adjudication officer where the complainant has demonstrated reasonable cause for his or her delay in initiating the complaint. The Senator's...

Seanad: Workplace Relations Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 Feb 2015)

Richard Bruton: This amendment is being introduced to give an adjudication officer the power to summons witnesses, along with documents if required, to attend and give evidence at the hearing into a complaint or dispute. It shall be an offence for a person so summonsed not to appear before the adjudication officer at the hearing of the case.

Seanad: Workplace Relations Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 Feb 2015)

Richard Bruton: A lot of thought went into this and the approach was that the first instance proceedings should be held in private and the appeal to the Labour Court in public, unless there were exceptional circumstances. This is what is provided for in amendment No. 98. I can give the detailed response to Senators. The question of whether first instance proceedings should be heard in private or public...

Seanad: Workplace Relations Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 Feb 2015)

Richard Bruton: I am only repeating the current process, which is in private. That is the way it has worked and it has worked very successfully. I do not feel the need to change it, but I am making sure that if this is not satisfactory and the matter is appealed, there is a right to have the case heard in public. Moreover, at the appellate stage, it will be held in public, which is in accordance with best...

Seanad: Workplace Relations Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 Feb 2015)

Richard Bruton: The system is working well and offers the right to people who are not satisfied with what comes out of a private informal hearing to have the case heard in public in an appellate body. If it is not broken, one should not fix it.

Seanad: Workplace Relations Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 Feb 2015)

Richard Bruton: The Bill states every decision will be published on the Internet. The Senator's proposal is inappropriate, having regard to the requirement on the commission to publish every decision of an adjudication officer on the Internet. It would place an unnecessary additional administrative and financial burden on the commission to maintain a physical register of decisions, in addition to requiring...

Seanad: Workplace Relations Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 Feb 2015)

Richard Bruton: The provisions of this subsection, as published, created some ambiguity about the range of persons who would be permitted to accompany or represent a complainant or respondent at proceedings before an adjudication officer and the Labour Court. The wording, as published, also could be read as vesting in the adjudication officer or the Labour Court the power to determine whether a particular...

Seanad: Workplace Relations Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 Feb 2015)

Richard Bruton: We have already dealt with this issue. Mediation is a voluntary process and people are free to be represented in any way they choose. I thought I had answered Senator David Norris's point in my original remarks. Essentially, we are removing the ambiguity as to what the power is and confining it in order that the Labour Court or an adjudication officer has discretion in accepting whether a...

Seanad: Workplace Relations Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 Feb 2015)

Richard Bruton: As Senator David Norris said, a person may be accompanied and represented by a trade union official, an official of an employers' body, a practising barrister, a solicitor or any other person if the adjudication officer so permits. There are only limited circumstances where the adjudication officer would not so permit and the adjudicating officer cannot whimsically exclude a person who has...

Seanad: Workplace Relations Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 Feb 2015)

Richard Bruton: That is not what we are debating. Amendment No. 85 has nothing to do with mediation.

Seanad: Workplace Relations Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 Feb 2015)

Richard Bruton: We have dealt with that issue.

Seanad: Workplace Relations Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 Feb 2015)

Richard Bruton: I seek to insert it, but I will come back to the Senator on Report Stage to clarify why we are taking that power.

Seanad: Workplace Relations Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 Feb 2015)

Richard Bruton: To some degree, the Senator's amendment reverses the position on the adjudication officer, where the Senator advocated allowing any person to be selected as a representative for a person.The Senator is seeking a detailed regulatory environment to be established for any such person and it is not entirely consistent. Our view is that it is not for the Labour Court to set out the professional...

Seanad: Workplace Relations Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 Feb 2015)

Richard Bruton: In proceedings in which it is alleged that a respondent is seeking to rely on personal data of the complainant which it failed to supply to the complainant on foot of a data access request by him or her, it is for an adjudication officer or the Labour Court to determine how best to conduct the proceedings, having regard to the overriding need to do justice and be seen to do justice to all...

Seanad: Workplace Relations Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 Feb 2015)

Richard Bruton: Our case is also perfectly reasonable. The Labour Court would judge this as part of the overall picture in which a case is being presented and take cognisance of how it is being produced at the last moment. In deference to the Senators, I will speak to people who are professionally engaged in such work to see why we have it formulated as we have. The Bill gives more discretion than the...

Seanad: Workplace Relations Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 Feb 2015)

Richard Bruton: I wish to inform the House that I intend to introduce amendments to sections 42(6)(a) and 42(6)(c) on Report Stage. These amendments are necessary to incorporate amended definitions of certain terms in the Maternity Protection Acts and Adoptive Leave Acts which are being incorporated into those Acts by the Children and Family Relationships Bill 2014. I will also introduce a number of...