Workers underpaid by €2m in 2011

Almost €2m in unpaid wages was recovered from employers following a probe by the National Employment Rights Authority last year.

NERA said a total of 5,591 inspections conducted in 2011 involving more than 100,000 employees has resulted in the underpayment of €1,905,262 in wages.

This represents a 52% increase in the total value of unpaid wages over breaches of employment legislation detected in 2010, despite a 22% reduction in the actual number of inspections.

More than €392,000 in unpaid wages was uncovered in 194 inspections of the retail-grocery sector, while almost €388,000 was found to be underpaid following 161 investigations of hotels.

Inspections in 375 catering outlets found almost €316,000 in due wages had not been paid and almost €170,000 was unpaid by 168 construction firms.

The worst sector for compliance with employment legislation is catering, where just 24% of operators met all their obligations under various labour laws, followed by hotels, where almost three quarters were in breach of some legislation.

The retail-grocery sector and farmers also recorded poor compliance rates.

The construction sector, which historically has a reputation for poor compliance with employment legislation, had the highest rate of compliance of any sector, with 42% of those inspected found to be in breach of labour law. More than half of all contract cleaning firms and electrical contractors also fully met their obligations.

NERA’s annual review for 2011 also revealed that inspections of around 120 companies in breach of the national minimum wage legislation on pay led to the recovery of €268,234 in unpaid wages. However, almost 500 other firms failed to comply with the National Minimum Wage Act in relation to record keeping and other matters.

According to NERA, a fifth of all employers inspected during a six-week period last winter were in breach of legislation governing the employment of foreign workers.

Out of 441 companies inspected, a total of 88 were found to be employing 212 non-Irish nationals without a valid permit. They included 77 Romanians, eight Bulgarians and 19 asylum seekers who were working illegally. The inspections also discovered that 31 students were working in excess of permitted hours.

NERA said it had initiated 56 prosecutions for breaches of employment law last year which represented 1% of all employers inspected.

NERA said it was policy to seek voluntary compliance where breaches were detected and only resorted to prosecutions where employers failed to take up the offer of being given every reasonable opportunity to rectify those breaches.

Under plans for reform of the state’s institutions governing employment and industrial relations announced by Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton last July, the functions of NERA, as well as the Labour Relations Commission, the Equality Tribunal and some functions of the Employment Appeals Tribunal, are to be formed into a single body.