Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Directive 96/71/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 December 1996 concerning the posting of workers in the framework of the provision of services was transposed into Irish law by the Oireachtas by Section 20 of the Protection of Employees (Part-Time Work) Act 2001 which came into effect on 20th December 2001. For the purposes of the Directive and the transposing legislation a posted worker means a worker who, for a limited period, carries out his or her work in the territory of a Member State other than the State in which he or she normally works. Section 20 of the 2001 Act provides that all employee protection legislation on the statute book in the State applies to posted workers in the same way as it applies to Irish workers.

There have been numerous routine contacts from the EU Commission requesting factual information from my Department in relation to transposition of the Directive by way of questionnaires.

The most significant contact from the EU Commission about transposition of the Directive was a letter of 27 June 2006 requesting the observations of the Irish authorities on the fact that the transposing Irish legislation applied all employee protection legislation to posted workers and thus went beyond the nucleus of mandatory legislation applying to posted workers under Article 3(1) of the Directive. The Commission pointed out that the first indent of Article 3, paragraph 10 of the Directive stipulated that the Directive does not preclude the application by Member States, in compliance with the Treaty and on a basis of equality of treatment, of terms and conditions of employment on matters other than those referred to in Article 3(1), in the case of public policy provisions.

Ireland replied to the Commission by letter of 14 July 2006 by stating that not to apply all employee protection legislation to posted workers could possibly lead to discrimination cases being taken by posted workers under equality legislation on the grounds of nationality or race. Ireland also pointed out in this letter that in pursuing the above course we took into account the provisions of article 3(7) of the Directive which provides that paragraphs 1 to 6 of Article 3 of the Directive shall not prevent the application of terms and conditions of employment which are more favourable to workers.