The National Employment Rights Authority (NERA) has responded to criticism of its record in enforcing workers' rights by pointing out that nearly €2.5 million in arrears was collected for workers by its inspectors last year.
The authority's record was raised by Senator Alan Kelly of the Labour Party, who said it was "quite unbelievable" that only one employer had been prosecuted for failing to pay the minimum wage while almost 300 had been found guilty of the practice over the past two years.
Senator Kelly said that employers who do not pay the minimum wage should be named and shamed.
He cited official figures which show that there were 104 detections in 2006 and 192 in 2007, but only one prosecution had resulted. He asked whether this was a result of gaps in legislation.
In a statement later, the authority said that in the case of breaches of employment rights legislation, its role was to seek compliance and rectification of any breaches identified, including redress for the individuals concerned and payment of any arrears due.
"This is evidenced by the fact that nearly €2.5 million of arrears was collected by NERA inspection services for employees in 2007," said the statement.
"It should be noted that in the majority of cases employers rectify the breaches and pay arrears due to employees without recourse to prosecution. However, inspection services reserves the right to initiate prosecutions in respect of breaches of certain employment legislation."
In the statement the authority outlined the number of inspections carried out in relation to the National Minimum Wage Act, the number of breaches detected and the number of prosecutions initiated for breaches of that Act for the years 2006 and 2007.
In 2006 there was a total of 2,002 inspections. No breaches of the law were detected in 1,898 cases while breaches were found in 104 cases and one prosecution was initiated.
In 2007 there were 1,942 inspections with no breaches in 1,750 cases and 192 breaches detected. The authority said that while no prosecutions had been initiated for 2007 a number were under consideration.
"The majority of the inspections/visits in 2006 and 2007 were undertaken as part of a focused employment rights compliance inspection campaign in sectors covered by the national minimum wage.
"Such targeted campaigns, accompanied by awareness and promotional activities, will be a significant feature of the National Employment Rights Authority's future employment rights compliance and information strategy," said the statement.
However, Senator Kelly said he was extremely concerned about the figures. "There does not seem to be a good enough deterrent for employers to adhere to the law, especially as they see it is not being enforced. Even if they are caught exploiting people, they may only have to pay back the arrears and possibly a €1,500 fine if they are prosecuted and that's simply not good enough."
He said that due to the lack of prosecutions, this Government was effectively saying to employers that it is worth taking the risk of paying under the minimum wage, because they were unlikely to be caught and even if they were, it would not cost them much.
"The deterrent needs to be more. Quite simply, employers that are exploiting their employees need to be named and shamed, in the same way those who are tax defaulters have their names published.
"This will in some way act as a deterrent."
