Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Question 30: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if his attention has been drawn to the serious concern expressed by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions regarding recent data from the Central Statistics Office, which showed that 43% of employees who worked overtime in 2004 did so without payment; the steps he intends to take to stop such exploitation of workers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11260/06]

Tony Killeen (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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In general there is no employment rights legislation covering overtime. While the Organisation of Working Act 1997 regulates rest breaks and maximum weekly working hours it does not cover overtime payment. Employees do not have a statutory entitlement to overtime pay except in certain employments covered by employment regulation orders and registered employment agreements. Policy on overtime pay may be decided by the employer and agreed as part of the employee's terms and conditions of employment or through collective agreements negotiated between employers and employee representatives.

Terms and conditions of employment are determined in the main by a process of voluntary collective bargaining between the employers and employees or their representatives. Within this system parties are free to negotiate or not to negotiate. To support the process and ensure a level of fair play, a floor of statutory rights, for example, minimum wages, holiday entitlements and so forth, are in place that can be improved upon by negotiation but which cannot be taken away. The State facilitates the bargaining process by providing a framework and institutions through which good industrial relations can prosper. Institutions have been established that can assist in the resolution of disputes between employers and workers such as the Labour Relations Commission, including its rights commissioner service, and the Labour Court.

While a feature of voluntarism is that collective agreements are generally not enforceable in law, in Ireland there are two areas where collective agreements have a legal foundation and are enforceable through the labour inspectorate, that is, registered employment agreements and employment regulation orders.

A number of employment sectors have pay and conditions of employment regulated through the joint labour committee system/employment regulation orders, EROs, or through registered employment agreements, REAs, that are legally binding on employers in the sectors to which they apply. A small number of individual firms also have binding REAs. Some of the EROs/REAs regulate overtime pay. Employment regulation orders or registered employment agreements regulate overtime payment in the following sectors: aerated waters and wholesale bottling — agriculture; catering — outside Dublin city and Dún Laoghaire; catering — Dublin city and Dún Laoghaire; construction; retail footwear and drapery — Dublin only; electrical contract; wholesale fruit and vegetable — Dublin only; hairdressing — Dublin city and county, Bray and Cork city only; handkerchief and household piece goods; hotels — outside Dublin city, Dún Laoghaire and Cork city; law clerks; printing — Dublin Only; provender milling; retail grocery; security; shirtmaking; tailoring; women's clothing and millinery.

The Terms of Employment (Information) Act 1994 provides that an employer is obliged to provide an employee with a written statement of terms of employment within two months of the commencement of employment. The written statement of terms must include information on any terms or conditions relating to hours of work, including overtime, as well as information on the rate of pay of the employee or how the pay is calculated. An employee who is not paid in accordance with his/her terms of employment may refer a complaint to a rights commissioner under the Payment of Wages Act 1991.