Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Amendment No. 1 was required to amend the Long Title of the Bill to reflect the amendments to the Workplace Relations Act and certain other enactments. Amendment No. 7 is of a technical and drafting nature.For the purposes of the proposed new Part 3 of the National Minimum Wage (Low Pay Commission) Bill 2015, "Act of 2015" shall mean the Workplace Relations Act 2015 and "Minister" shall mean the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation.

The second group of amendments are technical amendments arising from the insertion of a new Part 3 in the Bill to facilitate the amendments to the Workplace Relations Act 2015 and other enactments. Section 9 provides for the repeal of a number of sections of the 2000 Act. Section 10 of the published Bill provided for the Short Title, collective citation and construction provisions of the Bill. Amendments Nos. 2 and 3 provide for these provisions to be moved to new sections 1 and 2, respectively, while amendments Nos. 5 and 6 provide for the deletion of provisions previously contained in sections 9 and 10 of the published Bill.

On the third group, the specified date in the Bill as drafted is 15 July of the year to which the examination relates. It is proposed to amend this to make the specified date the third Tuesday of July of the year to which the examination relates. As the Bill is only being brought back to the House today, 14 July, clear difficulties are presented in terms of having the Bill on the Statute Book by 15 July. Accordingly, I have decided to move the reporting period back by four working days. This amendment also has the advantage of removing a specific date for the Bill and providing for a day which will fit with the general Government schedule. I wish to stress that this change in the reporting period is in no way associated with the work of the Low Pay Commission, which is making very good progress. This minor change is purely for logistical reasons.

Amendment No. 8 proposes to amend section 21 of the Industrial Relations Act 1946 and section 74(b) of the Workplace Relations Act 2015. Section 74(b) mistakenly inserts a new subsection (4) into section 21 of the 1946 Act. As the latter already has a subsection (4), it is proposed to repeal section 74(b) and to insert a new subsection (5) into section 21 of the 1946 Act. The language of the proposed new subsection (5) is also more consistent with the language of the 1946 Act than that used in section 74(b) of the 2015 Act. The proposed amendment links its commencement with the commencement of section 74 of the Workplace Relations Act 2015.

Amendment No. 9 inserts a new section 39A into the Redundancy Payments Act 1967 to provide for an appeal to the Labour Court on the decision of an adjudication officer under section 39 of the 1967 Act. The new section 39A provides that section 44 of the Workplace Relations Act 2015 will apply, with a number of necessary modifications to such appeals to the Labour Court. This brings the redress scheme provided for in the 1967 Act into line with the pattern of redress arrangements provided for in Part 4 of the 2015 Act. Section 76 of the Workplace Relations Act 2015 makes a number of amendments to the Redundancy Payments Act 1967. The commencement of the proposed section 13 is linked to the commencement of section 76 of the Workplace Relations Act 2015.

Amendment No. 10 amends the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977 to bring the redress provisions in the enactment more into line with the general scheme of Part 4 of the Workplace Relations Act 2015.

Amendment No. 11 relates to the Protection of Employees (Employers' Insolvency) Act 1984 into which it proposes to insert a new section 9A to provide for an appeal to the Labour Court from a decision of an adjudication officer in respect of a complaint under that Act.By providing that section 44 of the Workplace Relations Act 2015, with certain necessary modifications, will apply in the first instance to decisions of an adjudication officer under the 1984 Act, the redress scheme, under that Act, is brought into line with the two stage redress scheme established by the Workplace Relations Act 2015.

Section 15(2) provides that the section will be commenced in conjunction with section 81 of the Workplace Relations Act 2015, which also amends the Protection of Employees (Employers' Insolvency Act) 1984. Consequently, it is also proposed to amend section 81 of the Workplace Relations Act 2015 in tandem with the amendments proposed to the Act of 1984 in this section 16.

Amendment No. 12 in Group 8 relates to the Terms of Employment Information Act 1994. This amendment is of a technical or drafting nature and provides for the following: first, section 18(d) of the Industrial Relations (Amendment) Act 2012 amended the terms of the Employment Information Act 1994 by inserting a new section 6A into the Act. That new section provided that an inspector could give a direction to an employer who had contravened sections 3, 4, 5 or 6 of the 1994 Act to comply with the relevant sections. Section 6A provided that an inspector, for the purposes of that section, meant an inspector appointed by the Minister under the National Minimum Wage Act 2000. The amendment proposed by section 16 updates the meaning of "inspector" for the purposes of section 6A of the 1994 Act to mean an inspector for the purposes of the Workplace Relations Act 2015. Second, section 16B proposes a technical drafting amendment to section 7(1)(a) of the Act of 1994.

Amendment No. 13 in Group 9 relates to the Employment Equality Act 1998 and will make provision for the following: section 83 of the Employment Equality Act 1998 provides for an appeal to the Labour Court from a decision of the director of the Equality Tribunal in respect of a case referred to him or her under that Act. The proposed amendment substitutes new wording for section 83, which applies to section 44 of the Workplace Relations Act 2015, with the necessary modifications to such appeals. The effect of the proposed amendment is to bring the wording of the provisions relating to appeals under the Employment Equality Act 1998 into line with that of the appeal provisions in section 44 of the Workplace Relations Act 2015.

The amendment also proposes a number of technical or drafting amendments to section 101 of the Employment Equality Act 1998. Section 101 provides that a claimant cannot recover under both the Employment Equality Act 1998 and the Unfair Dismissals Act in respect of the same dismissal. The effect of the proposed amendments is that a claimant will be disbarred from seeking redress under the 1998 Act once an adjudication officer has made a decision to which section 8(1) of the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977 applies.

Subsection (2) of the proposed section 17 will come into operation simultaneously with section 83 of the Workplace Relations Act 2015, which makes a number of amendments to the Employment Equality Act 1998. Consequently, it is also proposed to amend section 83 of the Workplace Relations Act 2015 in tandem with the amendments proposed to the 1998 Act in this section 17.

Amendment No. 14 in Group 10 relates to the Equal Status Act of 2000. Section 31 of the Equal Status Act 2000 provides for a mechanism whereby a successful complainant under that Act can seek to have an unimplemented decision enforced against a respondent. The proposed amendment substitutes new wording for section 31, which applies to section 43 of the Workplace Relations Act 2015, with the necessary modifications for the purposes of enforcing a decision of an adjudication officer under section 25 of the Equal Status Act 2000, thus enabling a complainant or the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, with the complainant's consent, to seek enforcement of an award made by an adjudication officer under the 2000 Act through the District Court. This brings this aspect of the 2000 Act into line with the corresponding provisions of the Workplace Relations Act 2015. Subsection (2) of the proposed section 18 provides that the section will come into operation on the same day as section 84 of the Workplace Relations Act.

Amendment No. 15 in Group 11 to the Freedom of Information Act is required to ensure that the exemption from the freedom of information, FOI, legislation, which currently applies to the Equality Tribunal in so far as it relates to its mediation functions, will be extended to the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, upon commencement of the Workplace Relations Act 2015.Amendment No. 16 in Group 12 makes a number of technical and drafting amendments to the Workplace Relations Act 2015 which are required to ensure that the transitional arrangements and new adjudication and redress structures arising from the establishment of the new simplified two-tier adjudication structures are legally robust.

Amendment No. 17 to 20, inclusive, are in Group 13 and are technical in nature. They make provision for the transfer of property, records, legal rights and obligations, from the Director of the Equality Tribunal to the Workplace Relations Commission on the commencement of section 83, amending the Employment Equality Act 1998, and section 84, amending the Equality Status Act 2000, of the Workplace Relations Act.

Amendment No. 21 and 22 are in Group 14. Reference is made to certain provisions of the Companies Act 1990 and the disqualification provisions under company law in respect of membership of the commission contained in the Schedule to the Bill. These amendments update the Schedule to include relevant provisions under the recent Companies Act 2014.