Almost €2.5 million owed to employees was recovered after workplace inspections last year. More than half of this resulted from a focus on construction.
In its preliminary summary of investigations in 2007, the National Employment Rights Authority (NERA) revealed that 56 per cent of more than 400 inspections of the construction sector detected breaches of legislation. This led to the recovery of €1.33 million in arrears.
Separately, 61 per cent of some 200 inspections of the catering sector resulted in the payment of arrears totalling €263,000, while 58 per cent of hotel inspections recovered more than €440,000.
The authority, which launched an awareness campaign around employment rights yesterday, carried out more than 14,000 inspections, calls or visits. These were aimed at enforcing the minimum wage, protecting young workers and monitoring the construction sector and led to the payment of almost €2.5 million in arrears, an increase of more than €1.1 million on 2006. It also resulted in 98 prosecutions, but this figure is expected to rise this year, in part due to increased enforcement. The authority helpline received 93,000 calls from the public in 2007.
The authority, whose remit is to secure compliance with employment rights legislation, was set up by the Government on an interim basis last year following a commitment in the Towards 2016 social partnership agreement.
It appointed an additional 45 labour inspectors last year, with 14 others, eight of whom will be proficient in a range of eastern European languages, due to be appointed in the coming weeks. This will bring the total to 90.
At 16 per cent, the overall level of compliance, as well as compliance levels within sectors such as construction and catering, remains too high, the Minister for Enterprise Trade and Employment, Micheál Martin, said.
"I think the challenge is to get those figures down, and that is the responsibility of NERA," he said. "If necessary, where you have repeat offenders, of people who are flagrantly abusing the law on a continual basis, or who show complete disregard for the law, we will not be slow in prosecuting or initiating prosecutions . . . that also applies to the work permit area."
The authority's director Ger Deering said the Employment Law Compliance Bill, which is expected to be published shortly, would allow for "on the spot" fixed charge fines for minor breaches. The authority has also launched a new campaign focusing on the security industry, and is finalising plans to target the hotel and catering sectors.
Youthwork Ireland yesterday criticised a fall in the percentage of the inspections conducted under the Protection of Young People (Employment) Act 1996 from 35 per cent in 2005 to 17 per cent last year. A spokesman for the authority said there were other areas where non-compliance is higher and it had a duty to ensure that these areas are properly resourced.