Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin Bay North, Labour)
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22. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if his attention has been drawn to the practice in which employers that pay top-up to maternity benefit can force an employee who moves employment to repay their maternity pay; his views that this practice should be banned; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25356/22]

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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The Payment of Wages Act 1991 regulates how wages and salaries are paid and what deductions may be made from same. Under this Act, an employer is not permitted to make deductions from an employee's wages unless the deduction is authorised under the contract of employment, required by statute, or is made with the prior written consent of the employee.

Special restrictions are placed on employers in relation to deductions from wages that arise from any act or omission of the employee. For example such deductions, in addition to being authorised by a term in the employee's contract, must be fair and reasonable having regard to all the circumstances including the amount of the wages of the employee. Further, the employee must be given particulars in writing of the act or omission and the amount of the deduction at least one week before the deduction is made.

If an employee believes that his/her employer has made an unlawful deduction from his/her pay, then s(he) may refer a complaint to the Workplace Relations Commission, where the matter can be dealt with in the manner described above.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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23. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if he will provide an update on his Department’s working group on the determination of employment status; the persons or bodies that are the members of the group; the remit of same; and the expected date for completion of its work. [25346/22]

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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The Tánaiste agreed to convene a consultative working group on the Determination of Employment Status, which I Chair.

The first meeting of this group took place on Wednesday 13^thof April 2022 and the second meeting is scheduled to take place on Tuesday 21^stof June.

The group consists of representatives from ICTU, Ibec, the Construction Federation of Ireland and ISME as well as officials from the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment; the Revenue Commissioners and the Department of Social Protection.

The purpose of this working group is to examine issues around employment status, consider the scale of misclassification, and to discuss the potential to improve systems by which correct employment status is determined.

This is a complex area and the group will report on progress as appropriate.