Results 19,241-19,260 of 32,583 for speaker:Richard Bruton

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

Richard Bruton: One cannot use the fact people entered mediation to grab powers that one would not have had if had they had not done so. The Senator is providing that people come in voluntarily and have a chat but then, before they leave, they must adhere to a number of requirements.

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

Richard Bruton: Mediation is an informal and voluntary process. It is better that the Bill remains silent on the question of representation at mediation and leaves it to the skill and experience of the mediator to manage the process. Either party may withdraw from the mediation process at any time. Therefore, I will not accept the amendment.

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

Richard Bruton: We are sympathetic to the idea of having enforcement of mediated settlements being effected in the District Court, where possible. I am pursuing the matter with the Attorney General to see if a Report Stage amendment can be introduced to that effect.

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

Richard Bruton: As initially published, the Bill made separate provision for the referral of complaints and disputes to early resolution or mediation. This distinction has not been maintained. Section 39 has been amended to cover the referral of complaints and disputes for resolution by mediation officer. Section 40 effectively replicates section 39 and is, therefore, rendered superfluous and unnecessary....

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

Richard Bruton: I give the Senator that assurance. The Public Appointments Service has carries out a competition and we now have a range of persons including experienced industrial relations officers, HR practitioners, employment lawyers and civil servants with appropriate skill and experience. This will ensure a diversity among the ranks of adjudicating officers. In addition, a course is being run by the...

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

Richard Bruton: These are technical amendments.

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

Richard Bruton: Amendments Nos. 71 and 72 seek to include a provision in section 42(3) which would make it implicit that a practising barrister or solicitor or, where a complainant is under 18 years of age, his or her parent and guardian, in addition to an agency worker or any trade union of which the agency worker is a member, would be entitled to present a complaint to the director general under the...

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

Richard Bruton: Section 42 creates a common procedure for the presentation of complaints and referral of disputes under employment legislation to the director general of the workplace relations commission. The individual employment enactments under which a person may present a complaint or refer a dispute are listed in Schedule 5. This section provides for a standardised time limit of six month, extendable...

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...