Minister for Trade, Employment, Business, EU Digital Single Market and Data Protection Pat Breen TD to examine Labour Court Review of the Joint Labour Committees

Minister for Trade, Employment, Business, EU Digital Single Market and Data Protection Pat Breen TD, recently welcomed receipt of the Labour Court Review of the Joint Labour Committees (JLCs).

The Review was undertaken by the Labour Court in line with legislation introduced in 2012 requiring a review of the individual JLCs, with further reviews to be conducted at least every five years. The 2012 legislation, the Industrial Relations (Amendment) Act 2012, was introduced after the suspension in July 2011 of the operation of the JLCs following a successful constitutional challenge to the Supreme Court.

JLCs provide a wage-setting mechanism that determines terms and conditions of employment, as well as setting minimum rates of pay for workers in certain sectors. In the sectors represented, the terms and conditions are given effect in law by means of Employment Regulation Orders made by the Minister.

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The first Review on the JLCs was conducted in 2013 and resulted in the reduction of the number of JLCs from ten to eight.

The Minister noted that since the completion of the first Review in 2013, four Employment Regulation Orders (ERO) have been made covering workers in the security and contract cleaning sectors.

The Minister very much looks forward to completing his examination of the Review within a matter of weeks. He said “While it is extremely encouraging that the economy is in an increasingly strong position with almost full employment, there is no room for complacency and we need to balance Ireland’s competitiveness with the need to also protect workers in vulnerable sectors of the economy’’.

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