'Employer discomfort at Labour Court role in wage-rule changes'

TERMS OF reference for an independent review of statutory wage-fixing mechanisms and agreements are expected to be finalised “within days”, according to Minister of State for Labour Affairs Dara Calleary.

He told Fine Gael enterprise spokesman Richard Bruton that “the precise terms of reference and process for the review are currently being worked out and will be agreed shortly in consultation with the European Commission.

“It is expected that the review will commence early in the coming weeks.”

Mr Bruton said these agreements were “more of a difficulty than the minimum wage where all the attention has been devoted”.

He said “the problem lies with inflexibilities such as Sunday working premiums and all sorts of things, such as being obliged to redesignate workers from one category to another on foot of a simple placing of a stool into a shop.”

Pressed by the Fine Gael spokesman about the terms of reference, Mr Calleary said a number of options were being considered.

“The Labour Court can be involved, although there is some discomfort among employer organisations with regard to the role of that institution.”

An independent review from within the department was also being considered “involving all the parties who are signatories to these various agreements, as well as other interested groups that may have an interest in the economy but may not be a signatory to such agreements” such as chambers of commerce.

“Another option that is open is to conduct a review confined to all those who are directly affected.”

All parties in the Dáil would also be included, he said. Mr Calleary said he had proposed to “introduce an inability to pay mechanism for both registered employment agreements and employment regulation orders in the Industrial Relations (Amendment) Bill 2009”.

It was in this context that the Government decided on an independent review of statutory wage-setting mechanisms, employment regulations orders and registered employment agreements.

Labour enterprise spokesman Willie Penrose said he had always “been in favour of modernisation and streamlining those agreements because some aspects of them certainly acted as inhibitions”. Mr Calleary said the current procedures “are too slow to introduce changes, particularly in the challenging economic climate in which we operate”.