Employees’ rights - Entire system needs to be revamped

State bodies charged with protecting employees’ rights, such as the Labour Court, the Employment Appeals Tribunal and the Labour Relations Commission are so ineffectual that the entire system is completely dysfunctional, according to a review group set up by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment last year.

Enterprise Minister Micheál Martin has been advised by his department to ask the Government to rewrite all relevant legislation and reorganise the statutory bodies involved, because the whole system of employment rights is “dysfunctional, complex and legalistic, the complete opposite of what it is meant to be.”

The Employment Appeals Tribunal noted that the entire system is “time-consuming, costly, wasteful and frustrating as well as being an unnecessary drain on the resources of the State.” The Labour Court protested that there is too much confusion surrounding the roles of the different employment right entities.