Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein)
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169. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the funding allocated to the Workplace Relations Commission in each of the years 2015 to 2018 and to date in 2019; the budget allocated for 2020; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [52002/19]

Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein)
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170. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the number of workplace relations inspectors employed in each of the years 2015 to 2018 and to date in 2019; the number that will be employed in 2020; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [52003/19]

Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein)
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171. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the number of staff employed by the Workplace Relations Commission and the Labour Court in each of the years 2015 to 2018 and to date in 2019; the number that will be employed in 2020; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [52004/19]

Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 169 to 171, inclusive, together.

The Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) is an independent, statutory body which was established on 1st October 2015 under the Workplace Relations Act 2015. The WRC assumes the roles and functions previously carried out by the National Employment Rights Authority (NERA), Equality Tribunal (ET), Labour Relations Commission (LRC), and the first-instance functions of the Employment Appeals Tribunal (EAT).

As the WRC was established late in the fiscal year of 2015, the budgets of the individual workplace relations bodies remained unchanged until the following year. The pay/non-pay budget allocations of the individual workplace relations bodies which were amalgamated to form the WRC in 2015, were as follows:

Table 1:

Pay and non-pay budget allocation for Workplace Relations Bodies 2015:

Table 2:

WRC budget allocation for pay and non-pay in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020.

The WRC’s Inspection and Enforcement Division carries out inspections of employer records with a view to determining compliance with employment rights legislations. These inspections arise

- In response to complaints received of alleged non-compliance with relevant employment rights legislation;

- As part of compliance campaigns which focus on compliance in specific sectors or specific pieces of legislation, or

- As routine inspections, which act as a control measure.

The aim is to achieve voluntary compliance with employment law through the provision of education and awareness, inspection of employers’ employment records and enforcement where necessary. Table 3 sets out the number of inspectors employed at the WRC in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and to date in 2019.

Table 3:

The number of workplace relations inspectors employed at the end of 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and to date in 2019 is as follows:

The Labour Court is an independent statutory body under the aegis of my Department. In addition to its role of court of last resort in industrial relations cases, with the enactment of the Workplace Relations Act 2015, the Labour Court is now also the sole appellate body in employment rights cases.

Both the Labour Court and the WRC are staffed by civil servants of my Department. In addition, the WRC’s adjudication services are supplemented by a cohort of 44 independent external adjudicators. The Labour Court also has a cohort of 13 statutory appointees of Chairman, Deputy Chairs and Ordinary Members who constitute the tripartite adjudicating Divisions of the Labour Court.

Details of the staff employed by the WRC and the Labour Court at the end of 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and to date in 2019 are set out in Tables 4 and 5 respectively.

Table 4:

The number of staff employed by the WRC at the end of2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and to date in 2019, is as follows:

Table 5:

The number of staff employed by the Labour Court at the end of2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and to date in 2019, is as follows:

*Numbers include statutory appointees of Chairman, Deputy Chairmen and Ordinary Members.

My Department has initiated the process to recruit additional adjudicators and to fill inspector vacancies at the WRC in 2020 and will continue to work closely with the WRC and the Labour Court monitoring the staffing and budgetary requirements of both bodies to ensure that they are supported and adequately resourced to fulfil their roles.