NERA Quarterly Update November 2012

Introduction

The recent publication of the NERA quarterly update covering January to September 2012 has provided some useful insights into the comings and goings of Ireland’s employment law watchdog. NERA is an Office of the Dept. of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation and its aim is to secure compliance with employment rights legislation in Ireland through its main functions of Information, Inspection, Enforcement, Prosecution and the Protection of Young Persons.

Abolition of 3 Joint Labour Committee’s

The NERA report has confirmed that as of 12 October 2012 the Aerated Waters and Wholesale Bottling JLC, the Clothing JLC and the Provender Milling JLC have been abolished and as such there will be no further Employment Regulation Orders (EROs) for these industries going forward.

1.         Information

As of September 2012 the NERA call centre provided information to over 54,203 people, a decrease of 42% when compared with the equivalent 2011 figure of 94,696. The primary reason for this drop has been attributed to the transfer of redundancy claim calls to the Dept. of Social Protection at the end 2011. It is also suggested that the drop in queries may be because of greater employee awareness of their individual rights. Of all these information requests, 40,505 calls were handled by Information Officers, with 7,479 requests handled through the 24 hour recorded service. In terms of reform queries, NERA handled 6,219 queries, a 39% decrease on the figures from 2011.

Employees and former employees accounted for 73% of all callers, while an estimated 18% were employers. Redundancy, payment of wages, working hours, terms of employment, and unfair dismissal again represented the most common categories of queries dealt with. The NERA website also saw a 17% increase in traffic when compared with 2011 circa 1.1 million impressions.

2.         Inspections

As of September, NERA carried out a total of 3,140 inspection involving almost 51,000 employees. This actually represented a drop from the same period in 2011 where there were 4,199 completed inspections. Following on from this year’s inspections up to September NERA recovered €659,435 in unpaid wages for employees, compared to €1,622,979 in 2011.

Details of the inspections and breaches are shown below, broken down by industry type, and catering and construction account for the majority of cases. Interestingly, the Security industry had the highest rate of compliance with 75% of cases being compliant with legislation.

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- The Labour Court & Anor, [2012] IEHC 364 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 it was determined that he was not legally entitled to take an employment 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.

3.         Enforcement of EAT/Labour Court Orders:

In the review period, 60 new cases were opened and 54 cases were concluded. 95 such cases were on hand at the end of September 2012.

4.         Prosecutions

As of September 2012, NERA had referred 57 cases for prosecution which is considerably less than the 102 referrals in 2011. In respect of cases that had gone to prosecution during that period, NERA secured 46 employer convictions were resulting in fines of €102,000 being imposed and arrears of unpaid wages of over €37,700 being awarded to employees.

5.         Protection of Young Persons

146 licences, allowing children (under 16s) to be employed in cultural, artistic, sports or advertising work, were issued in this period in respect of 282 children working in the arts/TV/film industry.

Summary of Inspections & Breaches Detected by Industry Sector – Jan to Sept 2012:

Summary of Inspections & Breaches by Employment Legislation – Jan to Sept 2012:

Employers should seek advice from Peninsula Business Services when faced with a potential NERA inspection or if they have any queries on the information outlined above. Please phone the 24 Hour Advice Service on 01 8555050 and one of our experienced advisors will be happy to assist.