Last year, nearly €1 million in unpaid wages was recovered from rogue employers after inspections by the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC), a new report finds.
Most of the money was in the hands of employers in the wholesale and retail trade.
The WRC’s 2021 annual report states that 1,249 employers were caught by inspectors violating labor law obligations, recovering €964,281 in unpaid wages.
The amounts recovered are separate from awards made under the WRC’s arbitration service, which handles employee complaints, such as for unfair dismissal and equal opportunity employment issues.
The report did not state how much was awarded by jurors last year, but said €5.1 million was awarded in 2020.
According to the report, 4,432 audits took place last year, including work-related books and interviews with employers and employees.
Some inspections were carried out in conjunction with An Garda Síochána or officials from the Ministry of Social Protection and the Tax Office.
According to the report, the WRC’s inspection activities have generally focused on sectors where the “risk of non-compliance” was identified, where previous non-compliances were discovered and where intelligence was received.
Targeted sectors included where 50 violations of labor rights or work permit fisheries legislation were identified, affecting 21 shipowners.
Seven fishermen were found not to have permission to work in the state.
Agriculture and horticulture were also the target, with labor law violations being found in more than half of the 57 inspections.
Five inspections have been carried out in the meat processing sector, in which three employers have violated labor law.
Meanwhile, last year, 5,993 complaint requests were received by the WRC, of which 12,014 were individual complaints.
A quarter of these related to wages, 14 percent to unfair dismissal and 13 percent to discrimination, equality or equal status issues.
According to the report, equality complaints have increased by 20 percent compared to 2020.
Of 1,347 complaints about labor equality last year, 323 related to disability and 316 to gender.
A Supreme Court ruling last April led to major changes in the way WRC hearings are held.
The court found the legislation governing certain WRC proceedings to be contrary to the Constitution.
This included holding hearings in private, the lack of provision for an arbitration officer to take an oath or affirmation, and the lack of an opportunity to punish for false evidence.
The verdict required the introduction of new legislation to allow arbitrators to take an oath or affirmation.
According to the report, four months of hearings were disrupted until legislation addressing the issues raised in the judgment came into effect.
As a result, a total of 370 hearings had to be postponed or adjourned.
The report states that all arbitration cases are now held in public, with the exception of disputes brought under the Industrial Relations Acts or where an arbitrator decides that due to the existence of “special circumstances”, the
the procedure must be conducted in private.
Decisions on cases held in public are now published in non-anonymized form on the WRC website.