THE MINISTER for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton is creating a new office in his department as a first step to streamlining the State’s employment rights institutions.

Mr Bruton pledged last summer to merge the five existing bodies into two organisations and to replace the 80 or so different complaint forms with just one.

Currently, rights commissioners, the Employment Appeals Tribunal, the National Employment Rights Authority, the Equality Authority and Labour Court all deal with disputes between individual workers and their employers.

Yesterday, the Minister said that, as part of the streamlining exercise, his department has created a new office, Workplace Relations Customer Services, which will act as a single point of contact for the public.

Along with this, he is also introducing a single complaint form and a website.

The Workplace Relations Customer Services office will handle initial complaints, deal with enquiries and provide information to the public. Mr Bruton said the creation of the office and introduction of the single complaint form and website were important first steps in the the process.

“My overall objective is to encourage early resolution of disputes, the vindication of employee rights and minimisation of the costs for employees, employers and Government, in terms of money, time and workplace productivity,” Mr Bruton said.