A new code of practice for the employment of young people in licensed premises is worthless when there are only 17 labour inspectors to cover the whole State, Mr James Doorley, president of the National Youth Council, has warned.
He welcomed the new code but pointed out that there were 46 television licence inspectors. He said up to 100 labour inspectors were needed to ensure the Protection of Young Persons Act was properly enforced. The code would not be worth the paper it was written on unless the Government increased the number of labour inspectors.
Mr Doorley was speaking in Dublin at the publication by the Minister of State for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Mr Tom Kitt, of the code of practice. Mr Kitt accepted the need to continuously monitor and review the number of inspectors. Most irregularities found by labour inspectors were resolved through the co-operation of the employers in question, he added. Six employers were convicted last year for breaches in the legislation and six so far this year.
Labour's enterprise, trade and employment spokesman, Mr Pat Rabbitte, said the Minister had failed in the task of ensuring his Department's labour inspectorate had the resources available to enforce employment legislation. "Without proper enforcement, rogue employers will continue to abuse the rights of workers," he said.
The voluntary code was agreed by the Government, trade unions, restaurant and hotel associations and the two vintners' organisations. However, IBEC, the employers' body, did not sign the code.
Mandate, the union representing retail and bar workers, said IBEC had "effectively walked out of talks" and this called into question its commitment to ensuring greater protection of young people in the workplace. But the Minister said: "The appropriate organisations have signed, and that is what is important to me."
A spokeswoman for IBEC said it was not a question of refusing to sign the code. The agenda for discussions on the code was originally based on health and safety but had widened to "a whole range of issues", some of which were outside the scope of the legislation.
Concerns were also expressed that most inspections were in the Dublin area on weekdays and not at night or at weekends. The Minister accepted that most work was carried out in the Dublin area, but said the situation was constantly monitored. The number of night-time inspections was increasing and, of 2,583 inspections carried out, 757 were at night.
