April 12, 2021 2:25 pm
The Oireachtas spotlight will shine on the issue of work permits – with both meat industry and migrant representatives to appear before the Joint Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment tomorrow (Tuesday, April 13).
The Oireachtas joint committee will resume Pre-Legislative Scrutiny of the General Scheme of the Employment Permits (Consolidation and Amendment) Bill 2019 when it meets tomorrow morning.
The meeting at 9.30am in Committee Room three of Leinster House will discuss the heads of the bill with:
Representatives from Meat Industry Ireland (MII); and
Representatives from The Migrant Rights Centre Ireland.
Committee chairman, deputy Maurice Quinlivan, said: “This bill proposes to update the employment permits system to increase its flexibility and effectiveness to respond to changes in labour supply and demand, or employment practices.
The number of work permits issued to meat processing companies for non-EU nationals soared last year, despite Covid-19.
Figures provided by the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment show that 1,352 work permits were issued to the main meat processors last year, compared to 1,129 for all processors in 2019.
Two Dawn Meats entities last year secured 432 work permits. Other operators to feature prominently include Anglo Irish Beef Processors (281), Kepak (169), Rosderra (157), Slaney Foods (147), Liffey Meats (102) and Irish Country Meats (Sheepmeat, 64).
The surge last year followed new Government regulations introduced in 2019 which provided for an additional quota of 1,000 General Employment Permits for the meat processing sector, to address labour shortages in the industry.
April 6, 2021 4:34 pm
People Before Profit has moved a bill to provide a sick pay scheme for migrant workers in the meat, dairy and horticulture sectors.
The bill – Employment Permits (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2021 – aims to provide an employer-paid sick scheme for workers employed on general employment permits in the sectors outlined above.
Additionally, according to People Before Profit, it addresses “a number of other issues related to foreign nationals working in the state under general employment permits”.
“These include granting greater rights in certain situations to change employer within the first year here; providing for the right to access the Workplace Relations Commission in some circumstances where the person involved may not have a valid work permit; and ensuring awards granted to persons without a valid permit are recoverable in the event of a insolvency and to provide for related matters.”