The European Social Charter sets out a number of rights and freedoms relating to housing, health, education, employment, legal and social protection, movement of persons and non-discrimination. The original 1961 Charter was revised in 1996 and this revised European Social Charter came into force in Ireland in 1999. The Charter is a sister human rights treaty to the European Convention on Human Rights and was enacted to fill a gap left by the Convention which essentially covers only civil and political rights.
The European Committee of Social Rights (ECSR) is the body responsible for monitoring compliance in the States party to the Charter. States Parties to the Charter must submit annual reports to the Committee under the provisions of the Charter. In January 2013, the Committee found Ireland to be in breach of eight European requirements on employment rights following an examination of Ireland’s ninth report on the application of the Charter.
The Employment Equality Acts were found to be incompatible with human rights standards because the maximum compensation provided for under the Act is not a sufficient deterrent and may not sufficiently make good the loss a person suffers. The only provision which met the required standard was on gender discrimination under which there is no upper limit for compensation.
The majority of breaches were in relation to the rights of non-EU workers. Ireland was found to discriminate illegally against those workers in relation to training, guidance, residency requirements for access to education and access to further education. In addition the fees for work permits were found to be excessive.
Ireland was also found to be in breach of the rights of newly employed workers. The Committee’s report found that the Unfair Dismissals Acts do not adequately protect workers in their first year of employment and said that the one year period of exclusion was “manifestly unreasonable”.
The Committee’s next report will examine Ireland’s situation in relation to health, social security and social protection.