Paul Murphy demands urgent WRC access for migrant fishers

Thanks a lot, Chair. Effectively, this is a question as to why the Government hasn't done what it's promised now on a number of different occasions to provide a remedy for migrant fishers or any fishers who are overworked, working long hours in contravention of the EU directive. They currently cannot go to the WRC. The Government has promised on multiple occasions that they will introduce amending legislation to enable them to do so, but the Government keeps failing to do so, and it is the migrant workers who are losing out, and I can give examples later. Thanks, Chair. Again, the Workplace Rations Commission under the ages of my department is one of the number of agencies which monitors the operation of the atypical worker permission scheme, AWS, for non-EEA fishers employed on certain Irish registered fishing festivals. I presume that's the one you're preparing to mainly. The WRC is particularly responsible for checking compliance insofar in terms of employment, permission to work, payment of wages annually, public holidays and international minimum wage entitlements are concerned. Hours of work and rest periods of fishers who work under a contract of employment or in an employment relationship on board Irish registered fishing vessels are governed by the European Union, the International Labour Organization, Work and Fishing Convention, the Working Hours Regulations 2009, SI No. 672 of 2019, which are monitored by the Department of Transport. Marine surveyors of the Department of Transport are authorised officers for the purpose of enforcing these regulations and may, where a contravention of the regulations is detected, issue directions to the owner or master of a vessel or detain a vessel. Proceedings in relation to offences under these regulations may be brought by the Minister for Transport. WRC inspectors currently do not have a statutory function in relation to SI 672 of 2019. However, following the mediation in April 2019 on the Atypical Scheme, a settlement agreement provided that the Department of Justice would recommend that WRC adjudicators have jurisdiction over violations of the fishing vessel, working time, hours of rest regulations, and this will be implemented by the appropriate measures and determined by my Department. In this regard, our Department has engaged with the Department of Transport and agreed a proposal to extend WRC's jurisdiction relating to excessive working hours and insufficient breaks and rest periods. This proposal will be progressed as soon as practically in new legislation as part of a package that we are working on as well. So hopefully you will be able to update your forward on that very, very soon. I hope that deals with the specific question that was put down. I think you want to go forward now, which I am happy to do if there is time. I do want to focus in on this issue because the consequence of the Government failing to act on the agreement with the ITF is that workers like Jose Panay Salandran are not able to vindicate their rights within the WRC. This is a guy who was working 80 or 90 hours a week regularly. He went to the WRC. He actually was awarded wrongly 14,000 euros under the Organisation of Working Time Act. Then he went to the Labour Court and it was said, look, this isn't covered, that's accurate, and his award was cut down to 4,000 euros. He now may be taking a case against the state, which could cost the state money, under Frankovic damages, seeking Frankovic damages because of the Irish state's failure to transpose the directive. So the Minister says this is going to be done as soon as practicable, but he answered a question in January of this year to Deputy Barry, where he said this proposal will be included as a miscellaneous amendment in a legislative instrument in the spring. So when is it going to be? I presume that was the spring of 2022, not the spring of 2023. You are leaving migrant workers extremely vulnerable to continued massive exploitation, working 80, 90 hours a week. When is this actually going to be progressed? Yeah, so again, Deputy, the specific case, I can't comment on that, but I'm happy to engage with you separately on that in general. But it is a package we're bringing forward. I don't have a timeline, but I'll certainly try to get it fast-tracked. We were waiting for the recommendations and the changes and the review of the AWS scheme, which I think you'll agree with is a positive that that scheme will be changed now and replaced by access to the work permit scheme. And again, there's a cross-departmental working group on that as well, which will bring forward those changes in the next couple of months too. So overall, there will be new legislation required, and it's not prepared already yet, but I will try to go back to you with a timeline on that as quickly as you possibly can. It does involve a number of different departments as well, with complications of enforcements, but I think the commitment was that the WRC will be involved in that and will follow through in that as quickly as you possibly can. It was in the 30th of April 2019. PQ Answer was in January of this year. I mean, do you not, and does the government, not feel bad that by your failure to act on this, you are leaving extremely vulnerable workers rife to extreme exploitation? You leave them with no remedy, in terms of going to the WRC, to deal with the fact that they're being asked to work an illegal number of hours, that the government continues to fail to transpose the directive, the working time at sea directive, by not giving workers access to a remedy here. You know, people like José Panay-Zalandran being asked to work 80 or 90 hours a week, and unfortunately, he's not alone. So I really would urge the government to stop, like, taking its time with this. This is urgent. It should act absolutely immediately. Thanks, Chair. And again, I think it is an area of priority, and I think most stakeholders that I engage with in this sector across the different departments as well wanted the review of the AWS scheme, prioritised, and ASAP, and that's, to be honest with you, that's where a lot of our work has gone in, and that review is going to be completed, and the recommendations and the report went through Cabinet a few weeks ago, so we can get on with that work, which replaces the atypical scheme in this area with the work permit scheme, which I think is beneficial to everybody. I think most people in this House would agree that that was the right area to concentrate or work on. Again, just in relation to the work of the WRC, insofar as the atypical working scheme in general, since the launch of the atypical scheme in February 2016, the WRC has been involved in closely monitoring it. In particular, during the period when the scheme's launch to the 21st of October this year, it carried out 530 inspections, with 392 contraventions detected, 251 investigations completed, and 21 prosecutions have been completed as well. So, the WRC has also made 45 referrals to the Department of Transport in relation to the potential contraventions of the errors of rest and working time regulations enforced by the Department. So, there has been that ongoing monitoring, it's to do with the next part of the Dutra concern as well. In addition, a number of information and awareness measures have been introduced by the WRC since 2016 to enhance employment rights awareness and compliance in the fishing industry. In order to enhance these measures, the WRC consulted in December last year with 16 relevant stakeholders who were requested to make written submissions in relation to, and among other matters, possible additional outreach measures for fishing vessel owners and vibrant fishers. Submissions were received subsequently from five stakeholders out of the 16. The WRC's February 2022 report on the outcomes of these consultations sets out a range of actions, including some 23 measures and initiatives currently being progressed. Such measures include information provision, awareness and promotion, direct engagement with both fishers and vessel owners and representative organisations taking training and use of communication in the social media channels. So, there's a lot of change in the sector, and rightly so, and they need to be driven across departments as well, which we are willing to play our part and have been doing.