Results 1,341-1,360 of 6,430 for speaker:Gerald Nash

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Employment Rights (16 Oct 2014)

Gerald Nash: 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-----

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Employment Rights (16 Oct 2014)

Gerald Nash: -----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...

Other Questions: National Minimum Wage (16 Oct 2014)

Gerald Nash: The living wage concept is grounded in the idea that a person’s wage should be sufficient to maintain a safe, decent standard of living within the community without the need for substantial recourse to the welfare system. The national minimum wage in Ireland is considered to be relatively high by international standards. The most recent figures published by EUROSTAT show that...

Other Questions: National Minimum Wage (16 Oct 2014)

Gerald Nash: I want to reiterate the concept of the living wage, which is of deep interest to me and to Deputy Calleary and other Deputies. It is a concept that requires proper debate in this House and across society. There are considerable merits to having that debate. As the Deputy will be aware, I have already expressed my own views on the notion of a wage-led recovery and have called on employers...

Other Questions: National Minimum Wage (16 Oct 2014)

Gerald Nash: Exclusively leftist.

Other Questions: National Minimum Wage (16 Oct 2014)

Gerald Nash: The low pay commission will be asked to consider a range of matters in the context of making recommendations to me as Minister for business and employment on the rate of the national minimum wage on an annual basis. I am sure that will be one of the items the commission will consider when it is appointed. To return to the concept of the living wage, it is an attractive concept and an issue...

Other Questions: National Minimum Wage (16 Oct 2014)

Gerald Nash: With limited specified exceptions, such a close family members, statutory apprentices and participants on JobBridge, the National Minimum Wage Act applies to all employees. The Act defines employee as a person of any age who has entered into, or works or has worked under, a contract of employment. A contract of employment means a contract of service or apprenticeship or any other contract...

Other Questions: National Minimum Wage (16 Oct 2014)

Gerald Nash: The Deputy has raised a serious matter and I am glad she took the opportunity to put it on record. I have a personal interest in this area and keep an eye on trends of enforcement and prosecution. I understand NERA has carried out an inspection with regard to the issue raised by the Deputy. It is important that there is a strong message from the Parliament that, where there are suspected...

Other Questions: National Minimum Wage (16 Oct 2014)

Gerald Nash: NERA works closely with employers and uses every opportunity to ensure employers are aware of their legal obligations and the legislative area that is of interest to me. It is important that employees, trade unions and public representatives remain vigilant about cases brought to our attention to use the appropriate channels to have these serious matters investigated and decided upon.

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Employment Rights (16 Oct 2014)

Gerald Nash: The inspection of employers' employment records and workplaces to determine compliance with employment law and employee's statutory entitlements is carried out by Inspectors from the National Employment Rights Authority (NERA). In 2013, NERA carried out over 5,500 such inspections including construction sites. The policy of NERA is to seek voluntary compliance where breaches of employment...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: General Scheme of Industrial Relations (Amendment) Bill 2014: Discussion (11 Nov 2014)

Gerald Nash: I appreciate the opportunity to come before the joint committee to present the general scheme of the Industrial Relations (Amendment) Bill 2014 for the purposes of pre-legislative scrutiny, an important stage of the process. As the committee knows, the general scheme of the Bill was approved by the Government last July. The scheme, together with the regulatory impact assessment, has been...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: General Scheme of Industrial Relations (Amendment) Bill 2014: Discussion (11 Nov 2014)

Gerald Nash: I thank the Deputy for his comments. I know that he understands from his own experience how complex this area can be. The progress through the courts of wage setting mechanisms in the past few years has been interesting. The former joint labour committee system was essentially struck down by the High Court in 2012 and the registered employment agreement system in 2013. The Government has...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: General Scheme of Industrial Relations (Amendment) Bill 2014: Discussion (11 Nov 2014)

Gerald Nash: If the Deputy recalls, there is a similar provision in the National Minimum Wage Act, 2000 which, in fact, has not been invoked, as far as I can recall, by any employer. The tests are stringent, properly so. This should not be allowed, for example, to distort competition. There is a very clear provision in the heads in that regard. Anybody seeking a derogation of any description will have...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: General Scheme of Industrial Relations (Amendment) Bill 2014: Discussion (11 Nov 2014)

Gerald Nash: This is about standards in the industry. We have reached the stage where through the consultation process employers and trade unions, broadly, agree that we should put in place a new system to replace the old one but which would be more constitutionally robust and deliver the fairness employees expect. The requirement to have certain rates of pay for standards of qualification is important,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: General Scheme of Industrial Relations (Amendment) Bill 2014: Discussion (11 Nov 2014)

Gerald Nash: I have no difficulty considering any request from the committee to attend again. If members feel it is helpful to address issues various stakeholders discuss here, I have no difficulty considering the matter. I note in that regard that the legislation is a priority as the members will find from the stakeholders who come before them over the duration of the pre-legislative period. They see...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: General Scheme of Industrial Relations (Amendment) Bill 2014: Discussion (11 Nov 2014)

Gerald Nash: I am satisfied we can address those sometimes competing demands. I appreciate where the Senator is coming from and understand where he sits on this. Some have argued that the re-introduction of wage-setting mechanisms is somehow anti-competitive, but this is about standards also. It is about standards of training and the retention of workers. There has always been a premium for skilled...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: General Scheme of Industrial Relations (Amendment) Bill 2014: Discussion (11 Nov 2014)

Gerald Nash: It can enter an enterprise-level agreement. One of the important provisions of this Bill is the establishment of that sort of approach, where individual enterprises can come to an agreement and register it with their own workers. That addresses one of the deficits identified through the courts in respect of deficiencies in previous legislation. I agree completely with the Senator when he...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: General Scheme of Industrial Relations (Amendment) Bill 2014: Discussion (11 Nov 2014)

Gerald Nash: Senator Cullinane made a general point about the deficiencies in the legislation or deficiencies identified by the superior courts in the past. The reason we are reconstructing some of those systems, to a point, is that we believe it is in the public interest and the common good to do so and that it gives everybody consistency regardless of whether they are employers or employees. A series...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: General Scheme of Industrial Relations (Amendment) Bill 2014: Discussion (11 Nov 2014)

Gerald Nash: In terms of principles and policies that would be provided for in the legislation, it will certainly be robust enough. As an expert body, a court must have that space to make those decisions based on the evidence it has.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: General Scheme of Industrial Relations (Amendment) Bill 2014: Discussion (11 Nov 2014)

Gerald Nash: It has always been the case that apprentices would have a different rate of pay from qualified workers. That has been the case right across the system for many years. There is nothing new in that in terms of apprentices and established workers.