The Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton TD, recently announced the commencement of the plan to reform and consolidate the five existing employment rights institutions into two simplified and streamlined bodies. The five existing institutions are the National Employment Rights Authority, the Labour Court, the Labour Relations Commission, the Equality Tribunal and the Employment Appeals Tribunal.

A single point of contact, called the Workplace Relations Customer Service, has been established to process all first instance complaints. A single form will be used to submit complaints and will replace the 30 or more forms currently in use.

An interim website, providing information on the various redress and resolution mechanisms has been launched to support the phased replacement of the current workplace relations websites.

The new initiative aims to streamline the current system of employment dispute resolution and make it more effective and efficient. If this aim is achieved, then it is certainly to be welcomed. However, a concern is that, in the short term at least, it will simply add another layer to the process and result in further delays.  There is also a concern that the new complaint form is not quite as user friendly as one might have hoped.

Contributed by Catherine O’Flynn.

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