National pay talks are set to begin next week after the Government, employers and unions yesterday achieved a breakthrough in negotiations on measures to underpin employment standards, writes Chris Dooley, Industry and Employment Correspondent
The number of labour inspectors is to be trebled, to 90, as one of a range of proposals designed to clamp down on exploitation of workers.
It is envisaged that a new statutory body, the Office of the Director for Employment Rights Compliance, will be established to police employment legislation.
It would have a status similar to that of the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement, and would engage in joint operations with the Revenue Commissioners and Department of Social and Family Affairs.
A dramatic increase in penalties for those convicted of breaching labour laws is also on the cards. While specific fines have not yet been proposed in the negotiations at Government Buildings, it is understood maximum penalties of €250,000 are being considered by officials.
Negotiators have also reached an outline agreement on new legislation designed to deter employers from making workers redundant for the purpose of replacing them with cheaper labour.
Separate legislation is also to be introduced to make it illegal for an employer to sack workers for engaging in an industrial dispute, as happened in the case of catering company Gate Gourmet in Britain last August.
Union leaders were briefed about the developments in the talks at an executive council meeting last night of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu).
They agreed that sufficient progress had been made to allow the parties to "park" the employment rights agenda and move on to workplace issues including such topics as pay.
Negotiations on the wider social agenda, involving all of the social partnership groups, are also likely to intensify in the next few days.
The talks on a successor to Sustaining Progress, chaired by senior Government official Dermot McCarthy, began in early February.
They had already been delayed by several months as a result of the fallout from the Irish Ferries controversy.
Ictu insisted from the outset that sufficient progress on employment standards was required before it moved on to the pay agenda.
A stalemate ensued, however, over union demands for wide-ranging new legislation, such as measures to ensure workers in all sectors were paid the "going rate" for the job.
Employer bodies the Irish Business and Employers Confederation (Ibec) and the Construction Industry Federation (CIF) strongly opposed measures that would increase the "regulatory burden" on members and introduce inflexibilities into the labour market.
After painstaking negotiations in recent weeks, however, the parties began a final push on Monday to reach an outline agreement on labour standards.
After meeting at Government Buildings until 2am yesterday, the parties returned later in the day to conclude discussions in advance of the Ictu meeting.
None of the measures agreed to date is considered finalised, however, until an overall deal is concluded.
Other measures provisionally agreed include changes to the Employment Permits Bill published by Minister for Enterprise Micheál Martin last year.
It is now envisaged that migrant workers will be allowed to apply for their own work permits.
The Bill currently provides for their right to hold their own permits, but employers would continue to apply for them.
Measures to improve the overall regulation of employment agencies, as well as new protections for domestic workers have also been agreed.