Migration and Integration Related Matters in Ireland S New Partnership Agreement, Towards

Migration and Integration related matters in Ireland’s new partnership agreement, Towards 2016.

Innovative Measures

The following innovative measures respond to emerging needs and provide an opportunity for learning about new, more integrated ways of designing and delivering services over the first phase of the agreement:

1. Integration of Migrant Communities

• A new framework will be finalised to address the broader issue of integration policy. The Government will develop a comprehensive strategy for all legally resident immigrants following consultation with relevant stakeholders including the social partners which will build on and be linked with progress already achieved in the areas of social inclusion and anti-racism. Appropriate co-ordinating mechanisms to implement such a strategy will be developed and the scope for a role for civil society organisations will also be explored.

A range of strategies will also be pursued as part of the National Action Plan Against Racism. Furthermore, racism in the workplace will be proactively addressed in the context of the Anti Racist Workplace Week in keeping with best international practice in this area.

There is also a distinct and separate response in this Agreement to tackle exploitation of migrant and other vulnerable workers.

• Prioritising adult literacy in the area of adult education. The annual student cohort availing of the general national literacy service delivered by the Vocational Education Committees will be significantly increased by the provision of an extra 7,000 places by 2009. There will be a particular focus on increasing the number of migrants receiving an English language service (ESOL). Having regard to developments generally in adult literacy and its expanding role, the family literacy project under DEIS, the implementation plan of the national adult literacy advisory group published by NALA and the role of the VECs, consideration will be given to the appropriate support structures in this area.

Plus,

• Guidance/counselling will be provided to literacy and language learners and the needs of migrants will be considered in the context of the Educational Equality Initiative. Measures will also be adopted to monitor and evaluate progress in this area.

• Enhanced support for the effective integration of international children at both primary and second-level through the provision of an extra 550 language support teachers by 2009 and the reform of the current limit of two additional teachers per school.

Part Two

Pay, the Workplace, and Employment Rights and Compliance

Section 9. National Framework Committee for Equal Opportunities at the level of the Enterprise

9.1 The parties are agreed that the National Framework Committee for Equal Opportunities at the level of the Enterprise will continue its work in developing and disseminating practical supports for the equal opportunities workplace, supporting individual projects and engaging with cost effective equality planning and equality reviews.

Section 12. Employment Rights Compliance and Enforcement

12.3 A major package of measures has been agreed by the parties with these aims in mind, including the establishment of a new, statutory Office dedicated to employment rights compliance; a trebling in the number of Labour Inspectors; greater coordination among organisations concerned with compliance; new requirements in respect of record keeping; enhanced employment rights awareness activity; the introduction of a new and more user friendly system of employment rights compliance; increased resourcing of the system; and higher penalties for non-compliance with employment law.

Improved Communications

14.4 The parties are agreed on the need for more intensive promotion of employment rights, obligations and entitlements to employers and employees and to workers from overseas in particular.

• Social partners and other organisations will be invited to bring their knowledge and networks to bear on the design and delivery of this education and awareness programme.

• The ODERC will initiate a publicity campaign, with an emphasis on workers from overseas and on the sectors in which they are employed in significant numbers, setting out their rights in a range of languages and including, in relation to the construction sector, information on the pension provisions of the relevant REA.

• A specific budget of €750,000 will be provided for education and promotion of the new compliance model, in which the social partners will participate. This will complement other similar activities by Civil Society organisations.

Section 20. Supporting Employment Standards through Public Procurement

20.1 The parties are agreed on the importance of public procurement policy as a mechanism for contributing to the maintenance of employment standards and norms, including in respect of wage levels, while also ensuring competitive tendering and value for money in public expenditure.

(a)Public contracting authorities will be obliged to seek an appropriate certification of compliance with the requirement at (b) from contractors at suitable intervals. If non compliance with the pay and pensions terms of an REA occurs, contracting authorities can take whatever corrective action is considered necessary and appropriate, within the terms of the contract, including the proportionate withholding of payments, to ensure compliance.

Section 21. Regulating Employment Agencies and Agency Workers

21.1 The parties are agreed on the need for the improved regulation of employment agencies and agency workers. New legislation will be published before end-2006 reinforcing the existing system of regulation by requiring all employment agencies established and/or operating in Ireland to hold a licence. In this regard, the legislation will set out the conditions for the granting of a licence.

21.2 The new legislation will also put in place a statutory Code of Practice covering standards of behaviour for employment agencies. Compliance with the Code of Practice will be a condition of licensing. The terms of the Code will be developed in dialogue with the parties to the agreement and other relevant interests.

21.3 In preparing the legislation, in consultation with the Social Partners and other interested parties, it will be necessary to have regard to ongoing discussions and developments at EU level in relation to posted workers and the Draft Services Directive.

21.4 The underlying principles envisaged for the legislation and the standards of behaviour for employment agencies to be provided for in the Code of Practice are set out in the Appendix.

Section 23. Protecting Employees in the Home

23.1 The parties are agreed on the need for special measures to support the employment rights of persons employed in other people’s homes.

23.2 The Government has agreed with the parties that the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment will ask the Labour Relations Commission to develop a Code of Practice which will set out the current employment rights and protections for those working in the home and provide for:

• The obligation to provide a written statement of terms and conditions of employment as required under the Terms of Employment (Information) Acts, 1994 and 2001,detailing hours, rates, duties, breaks/leave entitlements, treatment of travel time etc;
• provisions as regards the safeguarding of privacy;
• the employer will not keep any personal document belonging to an employee;
• the treatment of accommodation and the making of any deductions;
• all additional duties will be by prior agreement only and out of pocket expenses will be reimbursed promptly;
• the employer will facilitate the employee in the free exercise of personal pursuits; and
• the employer will not restrict the employee’s right to trade union membership.

23.3 The new Code will be published before end-2006.

Section 24. Economic Migration Policy

24.1 The employment permits system has an important contribution to make in the protection of individual worker’s rights and supporting employment standards.

• The Government has agreed that the Employment Permits Bill will be enacted at the earliest possible date and that economic migration policy will ensure the following:

-that all workers will be allowed to apply for and reapply for their own permit;

-that there will be appropriate consultation with the social partners in determining included and excluded categories of staff/skills for eligibility for work permits;

-that there are adequate safeguards to protect workers’ rights in relation to the application for employment permits by:

• employers inside and outside the State;
• employment agencies; and
• in respect of intra corporate transfers;

-that the employment of non-EEA students is subject to an application for employment permits;

-that employment permit applications are not approved for wages below the REA/ERO rate or the National Minimum Wage, whichever is appropriate;

-that employment permit holders may transfer to another employment in cases of unfair treatment; and

-that spouses of employment permit holders who are granted residence in Ireland may be granted an employment permit.

• The regulation and quality assurance of language schools or workplaces providing language courses to international students will be strengthened by placing mandatory requirements on course providers. Key features of the new arrangements will include quality standards, a code of practice including protection of learners and treatment of fee refunds, keeping records, proof of enrolment and of continuing attendance. Complaints of breaches of the mandatory requirements will be investigated and dissuasive sanctions will be put in place.