The National Employment Rights Authority (NERA) have issued their quarterly report for the period covering January to September 2012. Overall the figures posted are quite interesting, as they report a decrease overall in the number of information requests, inspections, unpaid wages recovered and prosecutions for the same period in 2011.
Of the 54,203 (a 43% decrease on 2011 figures) requests for information, 40,505 were dealt with by information officers, with 7,479 requesting information through the 24 hour recorded service. There were also 6,219 eform queries in this period, which is a 39% decrease on 2011.
The service also posts figures in relation to the caller breakdown with 735 of callers being employees and 18% employers. Redundancy, payment of wages, working time, terms of employment and unfair dismissal are amongst the most common requests to the information service, which would be largely in keeping with past trends.
Workplace Relations Service
The new Workplace Relations Customer Services is based in the NERA offices and 10,199 employment rights claims were received in the first nine months of 2012. The Rights Commissioner (6,443) and the Employment Appeals Tribunal (2,536) account for the majority of the complaints, with Equality Tribunal (515), Labour Court (376) and NERA (328) making up the remainder. Interestingly only one complaint was received for the new Pilot Early Resolution service which suggests that the take up on this has been very slow indeed.
NERA Inspections
One of the main functions of NERA is workplace inspections, and in January to September 3,140 inspections were carried out. As a result of the inspections over €659,435 was recovered in unpaid wages for employees which is a decrease of almost €1,000,000 on figures in 2011 where €1,622,979 was recovered. Details of the inspections and breaches are broken down on the report by industry type and catering and construction account for the majority of cases, however interesting to note is that the Security industry had the highest rate of compliance with 75% of cases being compliant with legislation.
The report also details that 57 cases were referred for prosecution by NERA which is considerably less than the 102 cases referred in the same period of 2011, and fines of €102,000 were imposed, with €37,700 being recovered in unpaid wages to employees.
An area highlighted in the report, and one which has received much attention in the media recently is that of Employment Permits. The case of Hussein –v- Younis made headlines in August as the High Court overturned a Labour Court award for €92,000 as the employee was working without legal authorisation and so was not entitled to make such a claim. As a result of the inspections there were 271 employers having been found to have employees working without the correct documentation, which amounted to 548 persons deemed to be working without legal authorisation.
Young Persons and Posted Workers
The report also published some information in relation to Young persons employed in theatrical work which gives guidelines for the hiring of young persons under the age of 16. Information is also provided for the Rights of posted workers which are workers who for a limited period of time carry out their work in the territory of an EU Members State other than which they normally work.
Overall the report is useful as it gives an insight into the inspections being carried out and the fall in numbers for information, and inspection on the same period in 2011. It is also useful to see how recent case decisions can potentially influence the areas focused on by NERA, with the Hussein case potentially prompting an increase in inspections on this area of employment legislation.
