The days of workers being “left high and dry” when businesses go under may soon be a thing of the past.
Minister of Labour, Social Security and the Third Sector, Colin Jordan gave notice of this during debate today in Parliament on the Safety and Health at Work (Amendment) Bill, 2022.
He told the Chamber there is an amendment in the office of the Chief Parliamentary Counsel which seeks to amend the Protection of Wages Act.
“One component of the proposed amendment is when a business finds itself in difficulty and has to be wound up, at this time workers could be left high and dry outside of the benefits that they will receive. And so part of the amendment that we are seeking to make will protect working people in this country if the unfortunate materializes,” Jordan said.
“The soul of this party is with the working people of this country. We are bound to represent, to support, to uplift and to protect the working people in this country.”
The minister also outlined plans to reform the Employment Rights Tribunal (ERT).
He said changes were necessary to improve the efficiency of the ERT and to ensure justice was dispensed in a timely manner.
“The Employment Rights Act – there are some amendments to be made to that Act. The ERT, which is established by the Employment Rights Act, that is a structure to dispense justice but it has operated for quite a number of years without rules and we are in the final stages of preparing the rules to govern the operation of the ERT.
“We are also in the process of reforming the tribunal system or examining how it could be reformed and while we were at the International Labour Conference we engaged with two departments of the International Labour Office and the office will be providing for us some resources that will help us in working through how we will restructure so that we can have a system that is more effective and efficient in delivering timely justice to working people,” Jordan said.
