Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

147. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment his views on the data which show that 46% of inspections in meat processing plants between 2015 and 2020 uncovered breaches of employment law; the number of workplace inspectors the Workplace Relations Commission has; and his further views on whether this is sufficient for it to successfully investigate and uncover breaches of employment law in the meat processing sector and other sectors. [14201/21]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) is an independent, statutory body under the aegis of my Department, established on 1st October 2015 under the Workplace Relations Act 2015. The WRC’s primary functions include the inspection of employment law compliance, the provision of information on employment law, mediation, adjudication, conciliation, facilitation, and advisory services.

Table 1 sets out that in the period 2015 to 2020, WRC Inspectors found breaches of employment law in 48% of inspections undertaken in the meat processing sector.  Table 2 sets out the type of breaches identified.

Inspections carried out by WRC Inspectors operate on a compliance model. This means that an inspector will work with the employer to ensure that the employer fulfils all their statutory obligations and that any outstanding wages or entitlements are given to workers. Almost €184,000 in outstanding wages were recovered by the WRC for workers in the meat processing sector in the period 2015 to 2020.

Where an employer fails to comply, the inspector can use a range of statutory enforcement measures. These are:

- Fixed Penalty Notice: An employer may be required to pay a fixed amount in respect of breaches of employment law (e.g., €1,500 in relation to failure to provide payslips)

- Compliance Notice: These require employers to take specific action to remedy contraventions over a range of employment law and failure to comply with the notice could result in a prosecution

- Prosecution: Employers can be prosecuted in relation to a range of contraventions, including failure to pay statutory national minimum wage rate, employment of foreign nationals without permission to work and failure to keep employment records as prescribed in law.

The WRC Inspectorate is staffed by civil servants of my Department. WRC inspectors are ranked at Executive Officer (EO) and Higher Executive Officer (HEO) level. As of 19 March 2021, there are a total of 53 WRC Inspectors, 48 at EO level and 5 at HEO.  My Department, in conjunction with the Public Appointments Service (PAS) has recruitment campaigns in train to recruit WRC inspectors at both EO and HEO level.

Inspectors from both the Health and Safety Authority and the Department of Agriculture are active in this sector. Between the 18th of May 2020 and the 12th of March 2021, the Health and Safety Authority completed 297 inspections of meat processing facilities, which include those connected with COVID-19 outbreaks. In addition, Agriculture inspectors from the Department of Agriculture , Food and the Marine have undertaken over 741 COVID-19 related inspections at meat processing facilities since the 18th of May 2020. 

In October last year, I wrote to the Director General of the Workplace Relations Commission expressing my concern regarding the inspection figures relating to the meat processing sector; querying whether the oversight of employment rights in this sector was sufficient; and if it was time for a renewed focus by the WRC on meat processing plants.

My Department is committed to ensuring that adequate resourcing is provided to the WRC. In 2021, the WRC has been allocated funding of €12,556,000 in respect of pay and €2,614,000 in respect of non-pay, and I am satisfied that the resources provided to the WRC are sufficient to enable it deliver on its important mandate.

Table 1:

Breakdown of Meat Processing Inspections by the WRC Inspectorate:

Note: The quoted figure of 46% non-compliance was based on draft figures for 2020, the revised figure for the full period 2015-2020 is 48%.

Table 2:

Breakdown of breaches of employment law:

Note: There may be more than one breach of a particular piece of legislation detected during the course of an inspection case.