Ned O'Keeffe (Cork East, Fianna Fail)
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Question 384: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if a person (details supplied) in County Cork is entitled to be paid under the national wage agreement. [16649/07]

Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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The pay terms of all social partnership agreements are negotiated voluntarily and they come into force in individual employments through normal industrial relations processes. While the pay terms are not binding in the formal sense, it is expected that implementation would be effected through local agreement. Except where otherwise agreed at local level, the pay terms of "Towards 2016" came into force on the expiry of the pay terms of Part Two of "Sustaining Progress" in each individual employment or industry and last for a period of 27 months.

It is open to an employee whose employer has refused to pay the terms of the social partnership agreements to refer the dispute to the Labour Relations Commission. The dispute can only be investigated if the employer is willing to participate in such an investigation.