Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

199. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation her Department's plans to address the inordinate delays and dysfunction in the workings of the Workplace Relations Commission. [33146/16]

Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) was established to reduce inordinate delays of up to 2 years in the hearing of cases in some bodies that it replaced, and remove the dysfunction of having multiple first instance avenues of redress for the same workplace incident. This reform was overdue. Established on 1 October last year, the WRC incorporates the functions of the Labour Relations Commission (including the Rights Commissioner Service), the Equality Tribunal, the Employment Appeals Tribunal (first instance jurisdiction), and the National Employment Rights Authority (NERA). All first instance complaints are now dealt with by the WRC.

The collective and specialist services of the Commission all play a vital role in contributing towards industrial peace, public service reform, maintaining and sustaining enterprise efficiency and productivity and engaging with employers and trade unions on issues of employee pay and rewards. Ensuring fair, impartial, effective employment rights and adjudication services, together with appropriate levels of enforcement are vital and important components of a well-functioning and fair labour market.

It is worth noting that the WRC has been successful in resolving a number of high profile disputes over the past year and that overall the Conciliation Service enjoys a success rate of over 80 per cent.

Furthermore, over the last year:

- the Inspection Services of the WRC has undertaken around 3,400 inspections and recovered nearly one million Euro in unpaid wages for employees;

- the WRC information service has handled 50,000 calls from individuals looking for assistance on specific employment rights;

- the Adjudication Service has received almost 14,000 specific complaints and held over 2,600 hearings with individual complainants about breaches of their employment rights. Complainants are receiving a hearing on average between 12 and 16 weeks of sending in the complaint and a decision on average 8 weeks later. Requests by parties or their representatives to delay the scheduling of a hearing, pending the availability of key witnesses or to facilitate discussions regarding a potential settlement, are outside the control of the WRC, but obviously can impact on timelines for hearings.

- the Service has also reduced by almost a half the number of inherited complaints.

While there has been some comment about initial teething problems with the administration of the Adjudication Service, I am satisfied that overall, stakeholders are very supportive of the WRCs multi-year programme of change approach and that the WRC is fully committed to working through, in a constructive manner any issues that arise as the new structures continue to bed down.