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Employment Law - The National Employment Rights Authority

The area of employment law is changing rapidly with regular legislative intervention at a national and European level and with many more radical developments due to be implemented in the near future. Indeed, the past few months have witnessed an upsurge in employment rights awareness. Traditionally employers were more knowledgeable with regard to employment legislation; employees are now becoming more interested and more aware of their rights. It is essential for workers to appreciate their responsibilities, and to have awareness of issues such as working hours, pay and wages, redundancy, terms of employment, annual leave and sick leave.

In light of this current national awareness, the National Employment Rights Authority (NERA) was established on an interim basis by the Government in February 2007 on foot of a commitment in the most recent social partnership agreement, "Towards 2016". The primary objective of the NERA is to support the achievement of a culture of a of employment rights compliance among employers throughout Ireland. Its main activities are providing information on employment rights and monitoring employment conditions through its inspectors.

The Employment Law Compliance Bill 2008

The Government recently published the Employment Law Compliance Bill 2008 which aims to completely overhaul the State's employment rights framework. The Bill comprises of eight Parts (66 sections) and five Schedules. The main provisions of the Bill as currently drafted are:

• To establish a National Employment Rights Authority ("NERA") on a statutory basis;
• To foster increased co-operation at workplace level so as to safeguard employments rights;
• To protect employees who report breaches of employment legislation in good faith and to protect them from penalisation when claiming their employment rights;
• To empower labour inspectors in NERA to examine employment permits, prosecute offences and to conduct investigations jointly with other agencies including the Revenue Commissioners, Social Welfare inspectors and An Garda Síochána;
• To specify a comprehensive list of documents which must be kept by the employer in respect of the most recent three-year employment period and must be retained by employers for a further two years after the employment relationship ends the high penalties for failure to do so or for other breaches of employment legislation.

The NERA's Advisory Board

Minister for Labour Affairs Billy Kelleher TD announced the appointment of the members of the National Employment Rights Authority on 14 April 2008. The Advisory Board is being set up on an interim basis in advance of the likely enactment of the Employment Law Compliance Bill 2008. The main functions of the Board as set out in sections 19 to 22 of the Bill are to advise the NERA on the following:

• Issues relating to compliance with, and enforcement of, employment legislation including the provision of information; aspects of the NERA's work programme and strategy statement;
• Delivery of a high standard of customer service;
• Proposals for research, surveys and studies

Conclusion

With a public information campaign well underway the Authority is more visible, more vocal and more proactive than ever. The NERA's Information Services can provide impartial information on a wide variety of employment rights legislation to employees and employers by phone, in writing or by email.

In its first year the NERA'S information services dealt with almost 10,000 contacts. The telephone information line handled 93,000 calls from the public; staff also dealt with 5,000 email contacts and 900 personal callers. These numbers may very well increase as workers become more aware of what the NERA has to offer.

Seeking Employment Law Advice

If you would like to set up a consultation with an Employment Law Solicitor please contact Malcomson Law by calling 01 8744422.

This news section contains stories of interest from publicly available news sources. Where we are representing the clients referred to in the news material we will say so. Where we do not represent individuals or bodies mentioned or quoted, the inclusion of the news story in our news section is not intended nor should it be taken to imply that we act for the individual or body concerned.