Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is good to see the Minister of State. Sinn Féin is pleased to be able to support this Bill. We have a couple of concerns we might deal with on Committee Stage, but it is important legislation.

We understand the issues that arose for the WRC following the Zalewski case and the subsequent Supreme Court judgment are serious and require swift rectification. A remedy for the issues outlined by the Supreme Court is necessary to ensure the proper administration and working of the WRC. The core issues the legislation seeks to address are ensuring the administration of justice is capable of being conducted in public and the provision of statutory authority to administer oaths and affirmations in circumstances where there is a material dispute of fact. Ancillary to this is addressing an express concern of the Supreme Court with regard to the removal of an adjudication officer.

The sections stipulating that proceedings be conducted in public unless the adjudication officer, on his or her own motion or upon application by or on behalf of a party to the proceedings, determines that due to the existence of special circumstances the proceeding should be conducted otherwise than in public are important. However, I can foresee a problem. If one party to a case requests that proceedings be otherwise than in public, it might cause an issue. Cases are taken by employees and naturally many will want the hearings to be held in private because of concern that a public hearing would damage future employment opportunities and the likelihood of getting promotions.

I am keen to mention the important work carried out by the WRC despite being underfunded and under-resourced. The Workplace Relations Commission does fantastic work on behalf of workers across the State. In spite of the challenges posed by the pandemic, the WRC carried out 7,687 inspections in 2020 and managed to recover almost €1.7 million in unpaid wages for workers.Data recently revealed in response to a parliamentary question outlined that since 2011, the WRC has recovered almost €18 million in withheld wages for workers. This proves the worth of the WRC and makes a very compelling case for the further funding of this particular institution. Further data also revealed the scale and number of breaches of employment law detected by WRC investigations since 2015. In those six years the WRC has detected breaches in employment law in more than one third of all investigations. Of the number of cases investigated, breaches were found by employers for non-payment of the minimum wage, employment permits, protection of young persons, annual leave, public holiday breaches and unpaid wages, to name just a few. Sectors such as food and drink, retail and wholesale, hair and beauty, and construction have seen consistent breaches of employment law in recent years.

The scale and nature of these breaches reveal the dark underbelly of the Irish economy which must be stamped out. The idea that there are only a few select bad apples breaching employment rights and workers' rights has been blown apart by the data. We can see that it is not just a tiny minority and that there are in fact breaches right across the board. It is not every employer and not even the majority of employers, but it is a significant number of employers and they must be dealt with.

In six short years, more than a third of employers investigated by the WRC have been found to be in breach of employment law. Added to all of this is the fact that the WRC is underfunded and understaffed to quite a shocking extent. We must remember that the commission has only 53 inspectors carrying out this work despite being authorised to recruit 90 inspectors back in 2006. In other words, it has just over half of the staff that it should have. These 90 staff members should be the floor - not what we aspire to but the absolute minimum given that there are more people in work now than there were in 2006 when that agreement was reached. I would be interested if the Minister of State could comment on that in his response and how quickly that deficit might be closed out.

When people feel that they are in a vulnerable situation, they probably have to wait for six months or longer to get into the WRC. That is just not acceptable or good enough but it has always been the way, certainly going back to my ten years in SIPTU. All the while these workers are probably continuing to work in the place where the issue has arisen. Added to that is the fear that they will be exposed.

We need to give careful consideration to how we can ensure workers can have the confidence to take a case to the WRC and also have the capacity to maintain their anonymity and not suffer from any potential backlash. I look forward to this Bill progressing and working with the Minister of State on it.