Willie Penrose (Westmeath, Labour)
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Question 142: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the number of registered employment agreements currently in place; the industries and regions to which these apply; if he is satisfied that REAs provide a satisfactory framework for the regulation of working standards and conditions; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2531/07]

Tony Killeen (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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The registration of Employment Agreements and the maintenance of the Register of such agreements is a matter for the Labour Court and one in which I have no direct function. Currently I understand that there are 45 Employment Agreements registered with the Labour Court. Information in relation to REAs, and on those which have been registered or varied in recent years, is available on the Labour Court website at www.labourcourt.ie and in the Annual Reports of the Labour Court. Copies of the Annual Reports are available in the Oireachtas Library and on the Court's website.

Ireland's system of industrial relations is based on a voluntary approach with terms and conditions of employment being determined in the main by a process of voluntary collective bargaining between the parties. A feature of voluntarism is that collective agreements are generally not enforceable in law. However, Employment Agreements (provided for in the Industrial Relations Acts, 1946 to 2004) are agreements on pay and conditions of employment negotiated by the two sides in an industry or enterprise. Employment Agreements may be presented to the Labour Court for registration. Where the Labour Court is satisfied that the agreement presented satisfies the statutory requirements, it will register the agreement. The effect of this is to make the provisions of the agreement legally enforceable in respect of every worker of the class, type or group to which it is expressed to apply and to his or her employer, even if such worker or employer is not a party to the agreement.

While complaints of breaches of the Registered Employment Agreement are investigated by the Labour Inspectorate of the Department, the enforcement of the provisions of a Registered Employment Agreement may also be effected by direct complaint to the Labour Court. A trade union, an association of employers or an individual employer may complain to the Labour Court that a particular employer is not complying with a Registered Employment Agreement. If, after investigating a complaint, the Court is satisfied that the employer is in breach of a Registered Employment Agreement it may, by order, direct compliance with the agreement. Failure to comply with such an order is an offence punishable by a fine.

I am satisfied that our system of Registered Employment Agreements provides a strong framework for the regulation and enforcement of collective agreements between employers and workers on a wide range of terms and conditions of employment.