David Cullinane (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 29:

In page 24, between lines 33 and 34, to insert the following:

"Employer obligation to display notice of Employment Rights in the workplace

26. Every employer shall display in a prominent position in or at the place of work, being a place to which employees have regular access and in such a position that it may be read easily by employees, a notice or notices in a form, manner, and in an appropriate language or more than one language that is reasonably likely to be understood by the employees concerned containing the following information—(a) entitlements under employment legislation, either generally or by reference to particular enactments or a particular class or particular classes of enactments or to employees of one or more than one particular class or description, as may be specified in the notice concerned,

(b) complaints procedures concerning entitlements under employment legislation,

and

(c) the contact details of the Workplace Relations Service for the purposes of—

(i) making general enquiries regarding entitlements under, and the application and enforcement of, employment legislation, and

(ii) communicating information to the Director pursuant to the Protected Disclosure Act.".

The amendment seeks to place an obligation on an employer to display notice of employment rights in the workplace. It does not provide that all legislation relevant to workers' rights, employment law or industrial relations should be on notice.It is very specific with regard to entitlements under employment legislation, either generally or by reference to particular enactments. Generally, there would be notices on the Acts governing a worker's rights in various spheres and on complaints procedures. More crucially, there would also be information on making general inquiries regarding entitlements under, and the application and enforcement of, employment legislation and the workplace relations service itself. The amendments would oblige employers to display as much information as possible on the rights of workers, what the Workplace Relations Bill seeks to do and, more importantly, what procedures a worker is obliged to follow or take if he or she wants to make a complaint and the proper information on how to do it. This is the purpose of amendment No. 29.

Amendment No. 30 seeks to increase the penalty from €3,000 to €4,000. It is our experience and that of unions, and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions has lobbied on this, that too many employers do not take seriously their obligations to maintain or produce employment records. This is in stark contrast with how they maintain Revenue records. There is an obligation on employers to maintain Revenue records, and they place emphasis on this because huge penalties are involved, but they do not seem to have the same approach when it comes to employment rights or employment law. I could argue that we still have many weaknesses in terms of compliance and enforcement in this area and employers still do not take their obligations seriously. For consistency in penalty monetary amounts we propose that the penalty in the Bill be increased from €3,000 to €4,000.