Categories: General
      Date: Jan 25, 2010
     Title: Inability to Pay Clause to be added to JLC

Quoted in the Sunday Times the Junior Minister for Labour Mr Dara Calleary indicated that the Government plans to include a provision in the Industrial Relations Amendment Bill 2009 which will allow Employers to claim an inability to pay in relation to JLC rates of pay.

 

At the moment Employers can only plead inability to pay in relation to the implementation to the Towards 2016 pay agreement or in relation to the national minimum wage rate 8.65 per hour. While details of the actual process involved will not become clear until later in the year. The likely procedures will involve business's making an application to the Labour Court and opening up their accounts to external inspection (See the Resolve HR blog for more information).

 

The proposed provision has been developed as a response to recent legal challenges mounted against the JLC/REA system (see previous Resolve HR news articles and blogs for details). While Unions have criticised the proposals the reality is that the proposed provisions may be the only way to preserve the JLC/ERA system in the face of these challenges.