Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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345. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if her Department or the Workplace Relations Commission have conducted an analysis on the reason the Labour Court have overturned or varied 53% of adjudication officer decisions in 2016 (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [16934/17]

Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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Critically, in 90 per cent of cases, the decision of the Adjudication Officer was accepted by the parties and was not appealed.

With regard to the statistics on appeals published in the WRC’s 2016 Annual Report, and given the time period involved following the establishment of the WRC, the overall numbers of appeals to the Court are low.

As outlined in the WRC Annual Report, the position is that in relation to the decisions issued by the Labour Court in appeals on cases where the original complaint was made after 1 October 2015, of these, 47 per cent were upheld, 20 per cent were overturned and 31 per cent of those appealed were varied, mostly in relation to the quantum of the award.  Two appeals were deemed to be outside the time-limits.  As such, the vast majority of the decisions issued by the WRC were either accepted by the parties or upheld by the Labour Court.

The Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) is an independent, statutory body established on 1 October 2015 under the Workplace Relations Act 2015.

Section 41 of the Workplace Relations Act 2015 provides that an employee, or his/her representative may present a complaint to the Director General that the employee’s employer has contravened a provision specified in Part 1 or 2 of Schedule 5 of the Act. Where such complaint is presented the Director General shall, subject to section 39, refer the complaint for adjudication by an adjudication officer. A party to proceedings under section 41 may appeal a decision of an adjudication officer to the Labour Court. All appeals to the Labour Court are de novo hearings and turn on the facts of the cases presented by the parties at the hearings.