The Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Mary Mitchell O’Connor TD and Minister for Employment and Small Business, Pat Breen TD have announced that the new European Union (Posting of Workers) Regulations 2016 have been signed into law.

The new legislation transposes the EU Directive on better enforcement of the posting of workers Framework Directive. A number of new measures strengthen the enforcement of employment rights for posted workers and ensure that foreign service providers respect labour standards applicable in Ireland.    

On signing the new regulations Minister Mitchell O’Connor said: “Posting workers to and from Ireland to fulfil contracts won is an essential element of a properly functioning EU single market. Our businesses need this market to work well. These Regulations will help ensure workers posted to Ireland are better protected and can enforce the rights that posted workers are entitled to under the original Posted Workers Directive.”

“In transposing the Directive we have taken into account the views of respondents to the public consultation conducted earlier this year,” Breen said. “The approach in transposing the Directive is to do so in a balanced manner.”

“The Directive is being transposed in a way that provides significantly strengthened protections for posted workers while minimising the cost on compliant employers,” Breen said.

The key measures which are being introduced in these Regulations include:

• a new requirement on foreign service providers when posting workers to Ireland to notify the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) - they must provide information which will allow the WRC to monitor posting activity and ensure compliance with posting rules;  
• a new subcontracting liability in the construction sector is introduced to guard against posted workers being paid less than their minimum entitlements  -  where a posted worker in construction is not paid the applicable statutory rates of pay by their direct employer, the contractor one step up the supply chain can also be held liable;
• the creation of a right for a posted worker to refer a complaint to the Director General of the WRC naming both their employer and the contractor one step up as respondents;
• the introduction of a defence of due diligence for the contractor in any claim before the WRC - the Regulations set out in detail the test or criteria which the contractor will have to satisfy in order to avail the defence of due diligence;
• new measures which allow for the enforcement of cross border financial administrative penalties and fines.