Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Gavan. I am taking this matter on behalf of the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Heather Humphreys. As we know, joint labour committees are bodies established to provide machinery for fixing statutory minimum rates of pay and conditions of employment for employees across certain sectors. They are composed of equal numbers of representatives of employers and workers in an employment sector. The committee meets under an independent chairman and industrial relations officers of the Workplace Relations Commission appointed by the relevant Minister to discuss and agree proposals for terms and conditions to apply to specified grades or categories of workers in the sector concerned.If agreement is reached on the terms and conditions the joint labour committee, JLC, publishes the details and invites submissions from interested parties. After consideration of the submissions, the committee accepts the proposals. It then submits them to the Labour Court for consideration. The court will then make a recommendation to the Minister and, providing the correct procedures under the legislation have been followed by the court, an order known as an employment regulation order, ERO, will be signed into law. There are currently eight JLCs in place. Of these, two are relevant to the hospitality sector, one is in the hotels industry and one is in the catering industry.

Separately, sectoral employment orders, SEOs, set out the terms and conditions for workers in the economic sector to which they apply. There are currently three SEOs in place in the construction, electrical contracting and mechanical engineering sectors. The process to put an SEO in place begins when a request is formally made to the Labour Court under the legislation to review the terms and conditions for workers in a particular economic sector. A request to the Labour Court can be made separately or jointly by organisations that substantially represent employers or workers, such as a trade union or an employers' body. Again, the role of the Minister is to ensure that the Labour Court has followed the procedures set out in legislation. I must emphasise the voluntary nature of Ireland's approach to industrial relations. Our role is to provide a statutory framework within which parties can come together voluntarily.