Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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1182. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation her views on an organisation (details supplied) and the intention to unilaterally change the existing employment contracts of worker which will result in reduced pay and conditions for long-serving workers; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [9860/16]

Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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There is a robust suite of employment rights legislation in place providing protection for employees, including legislation governing working time and pay. This includes the National Minimum Wage Act 2000, the Payment of Wages Act 1991, the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997, the Minimum Notice and Terms of Employment Acts 1973 to 2001, the Protection of Employees (Part-Time Work) Act 2001, the Protection of Employees (Fixed-Term Work) Act 2003 and the Protection of Employees (Temporary Agency Work) Act 2012. I understand the dispute at issue relates to proposed changes to employee contracts that set out their terms and conditions of employment. I also understand that the parties have had some engagement with the State’s industrial relations machinery and would like to assure the Deputy that the Workplace Relations Commission and the Labour Court if required remain available, to assist in this dispute and I welcome the suspension of proposed industrial action to allow further talks to take place.

Even what often appears to be the most intractable of disputes is capable of resolution where both sides engage constructively and in good faith in this voluntary process. The principle of good faith implies that both sides in a dispute make every effort to reach an agreement and endeavour, through genuine and constructive negotiations, to resolve their differences.

Ireland’s system of industrial relations is, essentially, voluntary in nature and responsibility for the resolution of industrial disputes between employers and workers, whether in redundancy or other collective disputes, rests with the employer, the workers and their representatives. The State provides the industrial relations dispute settlement mechanisms to support parties in their efforts to resolve their differences.