Speaking in the Dáil during the Fine Gael/Labour Civil Debt Bill last Friday Sinn Féin TD Peadar Tóibín stated ‘Outside of the public sector 70% of those working are employed by SMEs, and the majority of these are small and micro business.
Week after week we hear from employer groups that their members are already overburdened – and now you want them to become both debtor and creditor of their employees’ unpaid debt?
This legislation empowers the court to make an order directing an employer to deduct certain specified amounts from the debtor’s earnings and to pay the sums deducted in the manner specified to the creditor.
The legislation sets out the requirement of the employer to comply with the court order to collect and pay out the debt, and states that the employer is not liable for non-compliance during the first 10 days.
The government intends to fine employers for non-compliance, how much is yet unknown.
Not satisfied with burdening employers with the role of debt collector and cash payable of a matter that has nothing to do with them; you actually rope them into having to engage directly with the Courts.
In order for an employer to determine whether particular payments are earnings he or she has to make an application to the Court.
They may also be required to provide to the Court a statement of specified particulars of his or her employees earnings and expected earnings.
Where an employee against whom an attachment order has been made changes employment their new employer must notify the court in writing that the person is now their employee and include in such notification a statement of the debtor’s earnings and expected earnings from the relevant employment.
Setting aside for a moment the excessive administrative burden you are putting on employers; imagine the impact of this measure on an employee/employer relationship.
The question has to be asked, have you even consulted employers on this legislation?
Any Minister who has actually owned and ran a micro or small business will know that this legislative arrangement is not acceptable – to employers and their employees.
It is intrusive, and it will colour the relationship to a detrimental degree.
Landlords have been vocal in their concern in their new role as debt collectors of Irish Water, and government has admitted recent legislative amendments will allow landlords to evict tenants if they fail to pay water charges.
So not happy with trying to impose collective punishment on those who cannot their water charges, the government has now extended the misery to families who cannot pay their ESB, their gas, their telephone bills or their TV licence.