Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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The Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) is an independent, statutory body under the aegis of my Department. 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. The WRC inspectorate subsumed the functions of the former National Employment Rights Authority (NERA) with the establishment of the Commission on 1 October 2015.

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.

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 pay slips).

- 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 Tables attached provide the amounts of unpaid wages returned to workers following workplace investigations by the WRC. The information is set out by sector and value of wages returned from 2011 to 30 June 2022.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 153 and 154 together.

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. WRC inspectors carry out inspections of employer records with a view to determining compliance with employment rights legislation.

The yearly cost of recruiting an executive officer inspector for the Workplace Relations Commission would be approximately €62,855 PPC. This is based on the calculation of staff costs as set out in the Public Spending Code. The code sets out that the cost should be based on the midpoint of the salary scale and include employer’s salary related PRSI, imputed pension costs and overheads e.g. ICT equipment, legal costs, travel and subsistence. WRC inspectors also qualify for an allowance of €8,779, bringing the cost of recruiting one inspector to approximately €71,634 per annum.

Using the same methodology, the cost of ten additional inspectors would be approximately €716,340.

My Department fully supports and continues to work closely with the WRC in monitoring its staffing and budgetary requirements. This includes anticipating future resource requirements to ensure that it is supported and adequately resourced to carry out its important work.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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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.

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.

From January, 2019, the WRC has utilised a new inspection case management system which provides richer data generally and in term of sectoral reporting is based on NACE sector. Prior to 2019 a WRC sectoral reporting tool had been utilised. Table 1 sets out by NACE sector the number of inspections carried out by the WRC in each of the years 2015 to 30 June 2022. Table 2 sets out the number and the type of breaches detected in the period and Table 3 sets out the counties where the breaches were detected.

Table 1: Inspection cases concluded 2015-2022 by Sector

Table 2: Number of Contraventions detected 2015-2022 by Type

Table 3: Number of Employers in Breach 2019-2022 by County