THE HEAD of the Labour Relations Commission has proposed that several State agencies dealing with employment rights and dispute resolution should be merged.
Kieran Mulvey said a new “employment relations authority” could take over the roles and functions carried out by a number of bodies.
He said these included conciliation, arbitration, workplace mediation, advisory reviews of enterprises/sectors, investigations, inspections, codes of practice, recommendations and proposals for dispute settlement and research.
“This could over a reasonable time period be undertaken by a process of amalgamation of the Labour Relations Commission, the Employment Appeals Tribunal, the Equality Tribunal, the National Employment Rights Authority and the Health and Safety Authority.
“In regard to the latter two agencies, specific legislative requirements and the respective functions of independent and specialist inspectorate investigative roles with potential civil court involvement may require separate institutional and legislation consideration.”
Mr Mulvey said the Labour Court should continue to stand alone.
He said his proposal for the amalgamation of the agencies would provide synergies and avoid unnecessary supplication. It would also “prevent dispute shopping” between bodies in the current system.
He said it would also provide a “one-stop shop” approach and ease the unnecessary burden of dealing with a myriad of employment regulations from a multiplicity of employment regulatory bodies.
The proposed move would also simplify the arrangements which “created confusion among employers and employees as well as duplication/overlap of functions”.
Mr Mulvey, who was a key player in brokering the Croke Park Agreement on public service pay and reform last year, said the deal was now facing a real challenge on delivering its potential.
He said the coming months would be “crucial to its continuation and survival in its current form”.
He said there were three specific developments in train over the immediate period which would affect the agreement.
He said these were:
* A review process contained within the agreement itself;
* An external review under the EU-IMF agreement in September;
* The formation of a taskforce recommended under a review of the Department of Finance to oversee and push forward change and modernisation in our public services.
“I anticipate a specific focus by this Government on the delivery of public services in local government, health, education, the Civil Service and State agencies, and this is being signalled in the programme for government and the full Cabinet ministry for the public service.
“It is in these areas that real, enduring and sustainable reforms and public expenditure savings can be achieved in order to address our national deficit and exchequer borrowing requirements and meet the increasing demands of our citizens.
“The consultation, engagement, local negotiation structures are robust enough within the agreement to deliver upon these ambitious programmes. Of equal importance is the agreed binding arbitration and time limit processes within a comprehensive dispute resolution structure in which our statutory dispute resolution institutions remain at their core.”