Government to name and shame rogue employers

THE Government is to start naming and shaming employers who breach employment law in legislation in lists similar to the Revenue’s tax defaulters.

The Employment Law Offenders List will be statutorily published as part of the Employment Law Compliance Bill 2007 which, despite its name, will not be published until 2008 at the earliest.

The Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment said the list will be published by the Director of the National Employment Rights Authority (NERA), a position currently held by the former taxi regulator Ger Deering. The department did not confirm how often the list will be published only that it would be from “time to time”.

A spokeswoman said: “The Employment Law Compliance Bill is designed to secure a higher level of compliance with employment law. The labour inspectorate under NERA is being increased from 31 to 90 at end 2007 as also provided for in social partnership agreement Towards 2016.”

The bill will simplify the adjudication and redress mechanisms available in the employment rights area and give labour inspectors stronger powers to investigate abuses.

The department said it did not envisage objections to the offenders’ list from employers body IBEC.

ICTU legislation and social affairs officer Esther Lynch said: “It is the same as publishing the list of tax dodgers, so it has that punitive aspect.”