Minister Pat Breen TD welcomes WRC success in recovering workers’ unpaid wages.
The Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) today published its fourth Annual Report (English) - (Irish). The report highlighted a significant increase in activity relative to previous years.
Mr. Pat Breen T.D., Minister for Trade, Employment, Business, EU Digital Single Market, and Data Protection welcomed the Annual Report by the WRC of its progress in terms of service delivery and output in 2018. “Last year was a very successful year for the WRC. In terms of the Adjudication Service the number of hearings has increased by 20% over the period while there has also been a significant increase in the overall number of face-to-face mediations conducted in the year, more than doubling on the 2017 outturn. In addition, there was a 20% increase in the inspections concluded by the WRC in 2018.”
Minister Breen also highlighted the success of the WRC in recovering over €3m in unpaid wages for employees over the year, an increase of 75% on 2017. “As the economy continues to do well, we must ensure that those in work are paid what they are due and the WRC is playing a significant role in the pursuit of this objective.”
The Minister added “The Conciliation Service of the WRC, which deals with industrial relations disputes, held 1,145 conferences covering some 926,427 employees in 2018. It is heartening that although there were 4,050 days lost to industrial relations disputes in the period, this the lowest level since 2012.”
The Minister also paid tribute to the significant contribution of the former Director General of the WRC, Ms Oonagh Buckley, to the success of the WRC to date.
Mr. Paul Duffy, chairperson of the Board of the WRC commented “Building on the WRC’s achievements, the Board submitted a strategy statement to the Minister to cover the period 2019-2022. Informed by core values of trust, independence, impartiality and innovation, the Statement set the WRC a fundamental target of establishing itself as a world leader in delivering an effective, efficient and trusted workplace relations service”.
Mr. Liam Kelly, Director General (Designate) of the WRC said, “The past year witnessed a significant increase in demand and output:
telephone enquiries increased by 10%
conciliation referrals increased by 13%
individual complaints submitted for adjudication or inspection increased by 10%
inspections concluded increased by 20%
The number of Adjudications heard increased by 20%
The number of Adjudication decisions increased by 32%, and
The number of overall mediations increased by 220%
The hard work and commitment of the staff over the past year has been critical in managing the demand and delivering this level of output.”
Mr. Kelly thanked the Minister, the Board, and the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation for their support over the period.
