An update on the recent statistics published by NERA, the employment law watchdog tasked with ensuring that employers comply with their employment law obligations.

National Employment Rights Agency ("NERA")
The employment law watchdog has recently published its first quarterly report for 2010. The report contains some interesting statistics which demonstrate that NERA continues to remain active in ensuring that employers comply with their employment law obligations.

Brief Background to NERA
 NERA is an office of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. It is aimed at ensuring employers comply with employment rights legislation, through the five main functions of Information, Inspection, Enforcement, Prosecution and the Protection of Young Persons.

Visiting inspectors usually review various employment records to check for compliance with employment statutes covering areas such as minimum pay, payment of overtime and annual leave and working time records. NERA's main goal is to require compliance with the legislation and rectification of the breach. In practical terms, this means a payment by the employer of any arrears due to employees. The particular arrears due will depend upon the legislation that has been breached. It does not currently have powers to impose fines although can, in the case of extreme and exceptional breaches refer cases for prosecution to the Chief State Solicitors Office.

Most Frequent Enquiries
According to the report, the most frequent enquiries received by NERA in the first quarter of this year are in the areas of redundancy, working hours, terms of employment, unfair dismissal and payment of wages.

2010 Inspections
The report has confirmed that, during the period January to March 2010, NERA inspectors have carried out inspection activity involving over 700 individual employers. Unpaid wages due to employees totalling €435,451 were recovered. Most inspections involved examination of an employer's compliance across several pieces of employment legislation.

Sectoral Differences
By sector, the areas with the most inspections were catering and construction. The highest rate of compliance was found in contract cleaning and security, which achieved a compliance rate of 50% each. The lowest compliance rates were found in the hotel sector (18%) and in retail grocery and allied trades (19%). While the construction industry had comparatively higher compliance rate of 46%, it was the industry where the most unpaid wages were recovered.

Employment Rights Breaches
Most inspections covered compliance with Organisation of Working Time, Payment of Wages and the Protection of Young Persons legislation. The worst area for breaches was in relation to the Organisation of Working Time legislation. There was only a 50% compliance rate by employers in this area and almost €30,000 was recovered. Over €50,000 in unpaid National Minimum Wage payments was also recovered but NERA found 94% compliance by employers in this area.

Prosecution and Enforcement Activity
From 1st January to 31st March 2010, 44 cases were referred to NERA solicitors for prosecution, while at the end of the quarter, 45 cases were awaiting decisions on referral for prosecution. 10 new cases were opened by the end of March in relation to NERA's enforcement power's provisions and 6 cases were concluded in the same period.

Future Developments with NERA
NERA was originally set up on an interim basis in February 2007 on the back of a commitment made in a social partnership agreement. It will be given statutory effect by the Employment Law Compliance Bill 2008, which is still making its way though the Dail. The Bill includes greater provisions relating to NERA's inspection powers and penalties for non-compliance with employment legislation. However, the Government has tabled numerous amendments to the Bill which have not yet been published. Given the summer recess, it is likely that the matter will not be dealt with until next autumn at the earliest.

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