Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am pleased to have the opportunity to introduce this Bill to the Seanad. The Bill, which has passed all Stages in the Dáil, has been recognised as progressive legislation which will provide for a fundamental reform of the State's existing employment rights and industrial relations structures and deliver an independent world class workplace relations service which is easy to use, effective, provides for workable means of redress and enforcement, and one that reduces cost to business.

Promoting and supporting harmonious industrial relationships in the workplace is an important element in achieving lasting economic growth and creating and sustaining jobs. To support this objective, we must have efficient and effective mechanisms to develop harmonious and productive workplaces and to assist employers and employees to avoid disputes. Where disputes do arise, the parties must be encouraged to work together to resolve them. Where this is not possible and State intervention is necessary, the services must be provided in the most efficient, effective and professional manner to the highest standards.

The current workplace relations system has evolved over a long period in a piecemeal fashion in response to European Union and domestic legislation and the changing nature of employment. A system that was intended to be informal, accessible and speedy has become extremely complex and protracted. While there are excellent and committed people working in the five existing workplace relations bodies, often with challenging workloads, clearly the system itself has not performed and needs to be changed. For many employers and employees the system is now too complex and onerous, takes too long to navigate and costs too much. Individual employees as well as many owners of small businesses increasingly believe they cannot navigate the system without professional help. That should not be the case.

These deficiencies have given rise to, among other matters, complexities for practitioners and users of the service, multiple points of entry to the system, forum shopping and long delays in scheduling hearings and issuing decisions. My objective is to deliver a world-class workplace relations service providing an integrated industrial relations, adjudication and enforcement service which is simple to use, independent, effective, impartial, cost-effective and provides for workable means of redress and enforcement, within a reasonable period.

From an industrial relations point of view, Ireland operates a voluntarist system of collective bargaining comprising non-intervention by the State in disputes but the State does provide dispute settling institutions and frameworks for local level and sectoral wage settling. I am satisfied that the State's existing industrial relations machinery has worked very successfully and effectively in the past and it is for this reason that it has not been necessary to make any significant changes in the Bill in terms of the manner in which this system operates.

The functions of the workplace relations commission will comprise all those currently undertaken by the Labour Relations Commission, including industrial relations conciliation, advisory services, information and research. These services, as currently operated by the Labour Relations Commission, have made a magnificent contribution to the industrial relations environment and will be incorporated into the workplace relations commission without change.

Significant progress has been achieved, in advance of the enabling legislation, in so far as the technological, structural, administrative and staffing changes required to underpin the workplace relations reform programme are concerned. These include the establishment of a shared workplace relations customer service; a shared post-registration unit and an early resolution service; the completion of the design of a computer based complaint file management system; the transfer of the Equality Tribunal to the Department; the launch of an e-complaint facility and a workplace relations website; the design of an adjudicator training programme; the holding of an open recruitment competition for adjudicators and for Labour Court deputy chairs; and the design and implementation of enhanced technologies and business processes. In addition, two public consultations on the scope of, and framework for, the reform programme were completed and the outcomes in this regard have informed programme design and implementation and the drafting of the enabling legislation. The Department continues to liaise as required with stakeholders.

The reform of the workplace relations bodies will achieve significant savings in terms of a reduction in staff numbers and the associated costs of delivering the service, while delivering a much improved service to employees and employers. The main drivers of the reduction in staff costs will be the centralisation of administration and case management services and the automation of business processes.

An essential step to achieving the two-tier workplace relations structures is the enactment of the Workplace Relations Bill which will see the existing five State bodies replaced by two. Before outlining in detail the main provisions in the Bill, I will outline a number of key measures that will be provided for in the legislation which include the services of the Equality Tribunal, the National Employment Rights Authority, the Labour Relations Commission and the first instance functions of the Employment Appeals Tribunal, EAT, coming together under the remit of the workplace relations commission; the appellate functions of the EAT being amalgamated into a reconfigured Labour Court; the establishment of the office of director general of the workplace relations commission; the appointment of the director general by the Minister on specified terms of appointment; the statutory powers and functions of the director general; the establishment of the workplace relations commission board with responsibility for strategy and annual work programme; the transfer of the existing functions provided by the LRC, including conciliation, workplace mediation and advisory services, to the workplace relations commission; providing workplace relations information and advisory services; a statutory basis for the use of innovative measures such as compliance notices and fixed charge notices to enhance the compliance functions of the workplace relations commission; the sharing of employment related and other specified information between the workplace relations commission, the Labour Court and other official agencies in the context of promoting compliance with employment legislation; the appointment of additional members to the Labour Court to facilitate the increased workload of the court in the new system; a new more transparent system of appointment of adjudicators of the workplace relations commission and chairs, vice-chairs and ordinary members to the Labour Court; the standardisation of certain procedural matters and limitation periods; the length of the period within which a first instance adjudicator's decision may be appealed and so on, across the full range of employment rights legislation; and better enforcement of employment rights awards and better compliance and enforcement measures for employment rights.

I now propose to outline in greater detail the main provisions of the legislation. The Bill, as passed by the Dáil, consists of 7 Parts comprising 87 sections and six Schedules. Part 1 comprises sections 1 to 8. Sections 1 to 6 contain the Short Title, collective citation, commencement provisions, interpretation and measures relating to the service of documents. Section 7 outlines the penalties which will apply when a person is found guilty of an offence under this Bill. Section 8 refers to Schedule 2 which details the provisions repealed by this Bill and makes transitional arrangements for complaints or disputes referred to a rights commissioner before the commencement of Part 4.

Part 2 comprises sections 9 to 25 and makes provision for the establishment of the workplace relations commission. The Labour Relations Commission, LRC, the National Employment Rights Authority, NERA, the Equality Tribunal and the first instance functions of the Employment Appeals Tribunal, EAT, will be replaced by the new workplace relations commission and the appeals functions of the EAT will be incorporated into the Labour Court. Sections 9 and 10 make provision for the establishment day of the new workplace relations commission. Section 11 sets out general functions of the workplace relations commission that are additional to other functions conferred on it by specific sections by the Act. The workplace relations commission will be tasked with taking proactive steps to ensure high standards of compliance with employment legislation and equally high standards in the conduct of industrial relations generally and with the provision of the necessary services to facilitate the speedy resolution of industrial relations disputes at as early a stage as possible.

Simultaneously, the workplace relations commission will have responsibility for providing the means whereby complaints under employment rights legislation can be investigated, resolved by early intervention or adjudicated, as appropriate, by competent personnel. Where the WRC suspects continued non-compliance with employment legislation on the part of workers or employers, it may resort to prosecution of the parties in question. The functions of the WRC will comprise all those currently undertaken by the Labour Relations Commission, including industrial relations conciliation, advisory services, information and research. The WRC adjudication service will continue the dispute resolution role of the Rights Commissioners as provided for in the Industrial Relations Act 1969, as well as employment rights adjudication functions.

Sections 12 to 16, inclusive, provide for the appointment, resignation or removal from office and functions of the director general of the WRC. The director general of the WRC will be appointed by the Minister following the holding of an open competition by the Public Appointments Service other than in the case of the first appointee to the office of director general. The Accounting Officer for the commission will be the Secretary General of the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation. Section 17 provides, on standard lines, that the director general is accountable to committees of the Houses of the Oireachtas other than the Committee of Public Accounts. Section 20 provides that the commission shall have a statutory basis, in consultation with the Minister, for the preparation and publication of codes of practice for the improvement generally of workplace relations.

Section 21 provides for the regular production of a strategy statement by the board of the WRC to be approved by the Minister and laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas. Section 22 provides that the board shall prepare an annual work programme in consultation with the director general for submission to the Minister. Section 24 is a standard provision which provides that the Minister may appoint such staff to the commission as he or she deems appropriate for the effective running of the commission and the discharge of its statutory functions. Section 25 provides for the appointment of a qualified and experienced lawyer to act as registrar to the commission.

Part 3 comprises sections 26 to 37, inclusive, and provides for the compliance procedures that will be introduced under the new workplace relations structures. The functions undertaken by the National Employment Rights Authority to date in promoting a culture of compliance with employment legislation will be continued by the compliance service of the new workplace relations commission. However, new mechanisms such as compliance notices and fixed payment notices will supplement the existing statutory powers of NERA inspectors.

Section 26 provides for the appointment of inspectors to carry out the inspectorate function under employment legislation, and section 27 restates and consolidates in one location the powers of inspectors, which are at present provided for under a range of individual enactments. Section 28 provides for the use of compliance notices to promote higher levels of compliance with employment legislation. Such notices may issue when an inspector forms an opinion that a scheduled contravention of employment law, which the employer concerned fails or refuses to rectify, has occurred. The compliance notice will set out the steps the employer concerned must take to effect compliance. An employer may appeal against all or any aspect of the notice to the Labour Court, with a further appeal from the Labour Court to the Circuit Court also provided for.

Section 31 will allow the WRC and its inspectors and adjudication officers to share certain employment related information with other statutory enforcement authorities. Section 32 enables the WRC and other statutory enforcement authorities to advise each other of suspected offences under their respective remits which come to the notice of any of them. Section 33 is designed to safeguard the wages and other statutory entitlements of employees who are working under public construction or other public contracts while also ensuring competitive tendering and value for money in public expenditure. Section 35 is intended to provide a statutory basis for administrative co-operation and the exchange of information between employment law compliance authorities of other states and the compliance section of the WRC.

Section 36 provides for the use of fixed payment notices in respect of a specified range of acts of non-compliance on the part of employers. The matters in respect of which a fixed payment notice may be issued are specified in section 36(5). There are only three offences listed in subsection (5) for the purposes of this section, namely, section 11 of the Protection of Employment Act 1977, which relates to the requirement for an employer to consult employees' representatives and the Minister with regard to collective redundancies; section 4(4) of the Payment of Wages Act 1991, which relates to an employer's obligation to provide an employee with a payslip; and section 23 of the National Minimum Wage Act 2000, which relates to an employer's obligation to provide an employee with a written statement of his or her average hourly rate of pay. The use of this mechanism is intended to encourage compliance and reduce the need to rely on expensive and time-consuming prosecution procedures for the scheduled acts of non-compliance. The legislation provides that the maximum amount of the charge or penalty specifiable in a fixed payment notice is €2,000. I am currently taking advice as to whether it would be appropriate for the Minister to issue regulations setting out guidelines as to the appropriate monetary amount of notices in specific circumstances. The overriding concern in practice would be to ensure consistency in the application of this section and its provisions. Section 37 provides that the power vested in the Minister under relevant enactments to bring and prosecute summary proceedings for an offence under that enactment is transferred to the WRC.

Part 4 comprises sections 38 to 54, inclusive, and provides for the new dispute resolution and adjudication structures. Section 38 provides for the appointment of mediation officers to the WRC. The Bill, as initiated, provided separately for the appointment of "case resolution officers" and "mediation officers" by the director general to ensure that parties to complaints referred to the director general had access to a range of early intervention options. However, these provisions were amended on Committee Stage in the Dáil to provide for the appointment of a single class of "mediation officer" who will deliver the full range of early intervention options that will be provided by the WRC. This is a more streamlined and efficient arrangement from an internal operational perspective. No reduction in the scope of complainants' and respondents' access to early intervention will result.

Section 39 provides for the case resolution service, which will be provided by the WRC to facilitate the resolution of employment rights disputes where possible at an early stage and without recourse to adjudication. The WRC will offer a range of early intervention options to resolve disputes under employment rights legislation, including the early resolution service as currently provided by the Labour Relations Commission and the mediation service currently provided by the Equality Tribunal. Participating in early resolution or mediation is entirely voluntary. Parties availing of the case resolution service will not lose the right to have their issues in dispute dealt with by means of inspection or a hearing as appropriate to their case, nor will they be disadvantaged with their waiting time for inspection or a hearing. That is an important point. Should case resolution yield a compromise or settlement between the parties or a withdrawal of the complaint, the outcome will be confidential to the parties. Likewise, if the case resolution is unsuccessful, anything divulged by the parties in the process cannot be used subsequently in the adjudication or inspection process. As case resolution and mediation services are now provided for together in section 39 of the Bill, as amended on Committee Stage, it will be necessary to delete section 40 from the current version of the Bill, which I propose to do by way of amendment on Committee Stage in the Seanad, to reflect the amalgamation of the previous provisions which provided for case resolution and mediation separately.

Section 41 provides for the appointment of adjudicators to the workplace relations commission. All first instance cases will be heard by the WRC in a fair and transparent manner in accordance with the law and the principles of natural justice. To hit this high standard, adjudicators must be suitably skilled and trained for the role. On the establishment of the WRC, the current cohort of equality officers and rights commissioners will be appointed as WRC adjudicators. They will be supplemented by a panel of external adjudicators, comprising experienced industrial relations and human resources practitioners and employment lawyers with appropriate skills and experience appointed by the Minister. The Public Appointments Service has completed a selection process for WRC adjudicators and those selected for appointment on the panel are currently participating in an accredited training programme which is being delivered by the National College of Ireland. Only those who successfully complete the programme and pass the final assessment will be formally appointed as WRC adjudicators and assigned cases.

Section 42 provides for standardised time limits of six months, extendable to 12 months for reasonable cause. All first instance complaints requiring adjudication will be heard in private by WRC adjudication officers. The adjudication officer will convene a hearing where both parties are given the opportunity to be heard and to decide the matter. Parties will be free to represent themselves or choose their own representation.

All appeals will lie to the Labour Court, except in the case of complaints under the Equal Status Acts, where the appeal will lie to the Circuit Court.

Adjudication officers will be required to conduct cases in accordance with the principles of constitutional and natural justice. This obligation will include affording parties the right to cross-examine. Subsection (11) of section 42 has been subject to some critical comment in that it is alleged that it gives an adjudication officer the power to refuse a lawyer or other representative of a party access to proceedings. This is not the case. The Government amendment introduced on Committee Stage in the Dáil has clarified the range of persons that may represent a complainant at a hearing, which includes a trade union representative, a practising barrister or a solicitor.

Section 43 empowers an adjudication officer to dismiss a complaint in circumstances in which he or she forms the opinion that it is frivolous or vexatious. Such a decision can be appealed to the Labour Court. The words "frivolous or vexatious" are legal terms. They are not pejorative in any sense. It is merely a question of saying that as far as the complainant is concerned, if he or she has no reasonable chance of succeeding then the law says it is frivolous to bring the case.

Sections 44 and 46 provide for a streamlined and more effective enforcement procedure for complainants whose complaints have been upheld at first instance by an adjudication officer of the WRC or upon appeal by the Labour Court. The current system of enforcement of employment rights awards is cumbersome, expensive and not fit for purpose. In my view, the difficulty experienced by successful complainants in enforcing awards made by those bodies in their favour is unsatisfactory. Enforcement proceedings generally involve recourse to the civil courts, and, possibly, the relevant sheriff's office, often without a successful outcome.

One of the central planks of these reforms is to establish a new and robust enforcement regime which will provide successful complainants with an accessible and inexpensive means to enforce the award of the WRC adjudication service or of the Labour Court, as the case may be. For this reason, provision is being made in the Bill for a new mechanism for enforcing awards of the WRC adjudicators and Labour Court determinations. The general scheme of the Workplace Relations Bill as approved by the Government in July 2012 provided for an improved and more robust system of enforcement of compensation awards under employment legislation via the District Court. The scheme provided that non-compliance with an order of the WRC or the Labour Court, as the case may be, would be an offence prosecutable summarily in the District Court. The enforcement provisions in the Bill, within sections 44 and 46 as published, do not currently make provision for an offence in such circumstances; however, this issue is the subject of further discussion between my Department, the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel and the Office of the Attorney General, and I hope to table an amendment for consideration at Committee Stage in the Seanad which will satisfactorily address this issue. I am confident that the introduction of these new measures will provide for more appropriate, efficient and effective enforcement of employment law.

Section 45 provides that either party to a first-instance hearing will have the right to appeal the decision of a WRC adjudication officer to the Labour Court. The court will act as a court of final appeal for all adjudication decisions of the WRC. Appeals to the Labour Court will be de novohearings held in public, except in exceptional circumstances where the Labour Court will have the discretion to hear certain cases in private, such as those dealing with sexual harassment or disability. The wording of section 45 of the Bill as currently drafted does not make it clear that the Labour Court will have the power to hear cases in private in such exceptional circumstances and, therefore, I intend to bring forward an amendment on Committee Stage in the Seanad to clarify this matter.

Section 48 provides that the only route of appeal that parties will have from a decision of the Labour Court will be on a point of law to the High Court. This provision does not impact on the supervisory role of the superior courts, which may be exercised by way of judicial review.

Section 50 provides that the director general of the WRC and the Labour Court may strike out cases for want of prosecution where the director general or the Labour Court is satisfied that the complainant or appellant has not pursued the complaint or appeal within a period of one year.

Part 5, comprising of sections 55 to 63, inclusive, makes provision for a range of technical and transitional issues consequent on the dissolution of the Labour Relations Commission. Section 58 provides for the transfer of all functions from the Labour Relations Commission to the WRC. The functions which are currently vested in the Labour Relations Commission, including the industrial relations conciliation, advisory, training and research services, will transfer to the workplace relations commission. Sections 59 to 63, inclusive, make provision for a range of technical and transitional issues consequential on the dissolution of the LRC and to ensure continuity between this body and the new WRC which replaces it. These are all standard provisions.

Part 6, comprising sections 64 to 71, inclusive, makes provision for a range of technical and transitional issues consequential on the dissolution of the Employment Appeals Tribunal. The EAT will continue to function for a limited period after the establishment of the WRC to dispose of all legacy first-instance complaints and appeals referred to it prior to the establishment date of the WRC, including cases that a division of the EAT had commenced hearing. The decision to extend the period of operation of the EAT beyond the establishment of the new framework is predicated on the assumption that complainants and respondents in matters referred to the EAT prior to the establishment of the WRC would have a legitimate expectation of having the case disposed of before a tripartite tribunal sitting in public and operating with the degree of procedural formality currently applied by the EAT.

I move next to Part 7, which comprises sections 72 to 87, inclusive. Section 72 enables the Minister to provide by regulation for the levying of fees and charges on the users of services to be provided by the Commission or the Labour Court. I have decided not to introduce charges on parties for access to the WRC services for many reasons, chief among which is the belief that "forum shopping" will not be a feature in the new system. However, I am proposing the introduction of a fee in one particular instance. Where a party who has failed to appear at a first-instance hearing of the WRC without good cause wishes to appeal the decision to the Labour Court, that party will have to pay a fee of €300 when lodging its appeal. If the Labour Court determines that the party in question had good cause for failing to attend the first-instance hearing, the fee will be refunded. I wish to clarify that the introduction of any fees will require regulations and any such regulations can be annulled by the Oireachtas.

Sections 76, 78 and 80 make provision for appointment to the positions of chairman, deputy chairman and ordinary members of the Labour Court. The Labour Court currently has three divisions and nine members - that is, a chair, two deputy chairs and six ordinary members - and it sits in divisions of three. The Bill will provide that the expanded Labour Court will have four divisions, but restructured for greater efficiency to allow the court to deal with double the number of appeals with only one additional division.

The Bill provides that the appointments of chairman and deputy chairman to the court by the Minister shall, in the future, be through the Public Appointments Service. These new arrangements will not apply to the persons who immediately before the enactment of this Bill stood appointed as chair and deputy chair, and the incumbents will continue to serve in these positions for the unexpired period of their respective terms of appointment. Previously, on the appointment of ordinary members, the Minister was obliged to appoint a person nominated by either an organisation representative of trade unions or a trade union representative of employers. The change proposed will require those bodies to put forward the names of three candidates for appointment in respect of each vacancy for an ordinary member. The Minister will then choose one person from the panel for appointment.

Sections 77 and 81 make provision for the consequential amendments to the Redundancy Payments Acts and the Unfair Dismissals Acts, respectively, as a result of the new adjudication structures being introduced in the Bill. A Government amendment was introduced on Committee Stage in the Dáil to make it clear that all referrals under the Unfair Dismissals Acts made after the commencement of Part 4 will be subject to Part 4 - that is, these referrals will be dealt with by the WRC rather than the EAT.

Section 79 makes provision for the making of regulations by the Minister, after consultation with the chairman, that certain functions of the Labour Court may be performed by the chairman or a deputy chairman sitting alone. In particular, such regulations may provide that certain specified preliminary applications or procedural matters can be dealt with by the chairman or a deputy chairman sitting alone.

Sections 83 to 85, inclusive, make provision for consequential amendments to equality legislation - namely, the Employment Equality Acts, the Equal Status Acts and Part VII of the Pensions Act - as a result of the new adjudication structures. There has been some negative commentary that the disestablishment of the Office of the Director of the Equality Tribunal, which is provided for in this Bill, will result in the diminution of a person's rights under equality legislation. I wish to make it absolutely clear that this commentary is not true. This Bill does not make any amendments to the substantive provisions in existing equality legislation which protect persons against discrimination in employment or in the provision of goods and services. Under the new workplace relations structures to be established by this Bill, all complaints under equality legislation will be adjudicated upon at first instance by the WRC adjudication service with the right of appeal to the Labour Court, except in the case of the Equal Status Act, where appeals will continue to be dealt with by the Circuit Court.

The practice and procedure of the Equality Tribunal provides the closest approximation to the procedures that will be applied by the adjudication service of the workplace relations commission.

There will not be any diminution of rights under equality legislation upon establishment of the workplace relations commission and complaints of discrimination under this legislation will have equal priority in the new system with all other employment related matters. The Bill provides that the current cohort of equality officers will be appointed as adjudicators upon establishment of the WRC, thereby ensuring that their knowledge and expertise in the adjudication of discrimination related complaints will transfer wholly to the new body. Ireland has an excellent record on equality matters and was one of the first countries to give effect to the European equality directives. The reforms that will be given legislative effect by the Bill will modernise and enhance the redress mechanisms available to those who believe they have not been treated equally in the workplace on the grounds set out in the Equality Acts.

Section 87 provides for an amendment to the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997 to bring it into line with rulings of the European Court of Justice in the Schultz-Hoff line of cases regarding how time spent on sick leave should be treated for the purposes of the accrual of annual leave. This section also provides for amendments to the Financial (Emergency Measures in the Public Interest) (No. 2) Act 2009 and the Industrial Relations Act 1990. Both amendments are being brought forward at the request of my colleague, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform.

I will provide a brief comment on the six Schedules to the Bill. Schedule 1 contains a list of the relevant Employment Acts, the provisions of the Acts of the Oireachtas and statutory instruments that are included in the definition of employment enactments for the purposes of this Bill. Schedule 2 contains a list of the provisions within individual Acts of the Oireachtas that will be repealed upon the commencement of Part 4 of the Workplace Relations Bill. Schedule 3 sets out details of the corporate structure of the new WRC. This Schedule also provides for the appointment of a statutory board of the WRC. Schedule 4 sets out details of the list of contraventions of employment enactments for the purpose of compliance notices as provided for in section 28. Schedule 5 sets out details of the individual employment enactments under which a person will be able to present a complaint or refer a dispute to the director general of the WRC. Schedule 6 sets out the consequential amendments necessary to make to other employment enactments as a result of the new structures for the adjudication of complaints and disputes that will be introduced by this Bill.

I wish to bring to the attention of Members of the Seanad that my Department is in discussion with the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel on a number of issues where the Bill does not fully reflect the policy as set out in the heads approved by the Government. Moreover, the Minister has agreed to consider some changes suggested by Opposition Deputies and to introduce amendments accordingly. More minor drafting points and consequential amendments to other Employment Acts are under discussion which we propose to address with amendments on Committee Stage in the Seanad. As a result I will bring forward a number of Government amendments on Committee Stage in the Seanad.

The key issues it is proposed to address by way of amendments to the Bill include ensuring a visible provision in the legislation to create an offence of non-compliance with an order of the District Court to enforce a decision of the WRC or Labour Court under employment legislation. This refers to sections 44 and 46. Amendments to sections 42 and 45 are to clarify details relating to representation of parties appearing before an adjudication officer and the Labour Court. Amendments to Part 6 are to address issues raised relating to the provisions relating to the dissolution of the Employment Appeals Tribunal. An amendment to section 101 of the Employment Equality Act is to provide for the manner in which parallel claims under the Employment Equality Act and Unfair Dismissals Act, will be dealt with by the WRC. Amendments to the Schedules, in particular, Schedules 2 and 6, are to ensure that all of the consequential amendments to other employment enactments, including providing for the inclusion of the new dispute resolution and adjudication mechanisms in individual enactments, which arise on foot of this Bill, are accurately incorporated in the legislation. An amendment to section 80 will provide for temporary appointments to position of deputy chair of the Labour Court.

I thank Members of the Seanad for providing time for consideration of this Bill. I emphasise the importance of the Bill in the context of the Government's commitment to reform the State's existing employment rights and industrial relations structures and to deliver an independent, world-class workplace relations system. While considerable progress has been achieved to date on an administrative basis, completing the proposed reform requires the enactment of this Bill and this is a priority to give legislative effect to the new workplace relations structures and processes.

I look forward to contributions from Senators during this debate and the co-operation of the House in securing the Bill's early enactment. I commend the Bill to the House.