Inspectors from the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) have been involved in carrying out a number of unscheduled inspections on farms and across the agri-sector as part of a joint EU initiative focused on "labour exploitation and human trafficking".
According to the WRC its team conducted inspections "throughout Ireland on employers operating within the agricultural and fishing sectors including forestry, fruit and vegetable farms, livestock farms - animals and poultry- and fishing vessels".
The inspections took place from October 7-13 as part of the EMPACT 2024 Joint Action Days against Labour Exploitation in the agriculture sector.
EMPACT (European Multidisciplinary Platform Against Criminal Threats) is a security initiative driven by EU Member States to identify, prioritise and address threats posed by organised and serious international crime.
According to the WRC it participates in a number of EMPACT initiatives on an annual basis because it is responsible for "ensuring compliance with employment law and employment permit legislation across all sectors of employment".
It also outlined to Agriland that under the Workplace Relations Act (2015), "inspectors are legally empowered to enter any workplace, and it is an offence to obstruct or interfere with an inspector, to provide an inspector with misleading information or to fail or refuse to comply with a requirement of an inspector".
"The WRC carries out inspections for a number of circumstances; these include inspections carried out as a result of information, sectoral campaigns, complaints and on a random basis.
"The WRC does not comment on individual inspectors," it stated.
During the EMPACT 2023 Joint Action Days against Labour Exploitation in the agriculture sector the WRC carried out 14 unannounced inspections on farms and across the agri-sector.
As a result of these inspections the WRC found that nine of the employers’ inspected had employment law breaches - and a total of 13 contraventions of employment legislation were detected.
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