STATUTORY INSTRUMENTS

S.I. No. 354 of 2006

European Communities (Statistics) (Labour Costs Surveys) Regulations 2006

I, Bertie Ahern, Taoiseach, in exercise of the powers conferred on me by section 3 of the European Communities Act 1972 (No. 27 of 1972), for the purpose of giving further effect to Council Regulation (EC) No. 530/1999 of 9 March 1999¹ , Commission Regulation (EC) No. 1726/1999 of 27 July 1999² , Commission Regulation (EC) No. 452/2000 of 28 February 2000³ , Regulation (EC) No. 450/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 February 2003⁴ , Commission Regulation (EC) No. 1216/2003 of 7 July 2003⁵ and Commission Regulation (EC) No. 1737/2005 of 21 October 2005¹ , hereby make the following regulations:

1.         (1)       These Regulations may be cited as the European Communities

(Statistics)

(Labour Costs Surveys) Regulations 2006.

(2)        In these Regulations -

-�Act-� means Statistics Act 1993 (No. 21 of 1993);

-�Director General-� means Director General of the Office;

-�Office-� means Central Statistics Office;

-�undertaking-� has the meaning assigned to it by the Act.

2.         These Regulations apply to undertakings classified for statistical purposes under sections C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N and O of NACE Rev. 1 (set out in the Annex to Council Regulation (EEC) No. 3037/90 of 9 October 1990² , as amended by Commission Regulation (EEC) No. 29/2002 of 19 December 2001³ ), which employ one or more persons, which are engaged in economic activities at any time during a period in respect of which a survey referred to in Regulation 3 is undertaken.

3.         An undertaking to which these Regulations apply is required to provide to the Office, within the period or periods specified by the Director General, information, the general nature of which is specified in the Schedule, in statistical form pursuant to a survey, known as the Earnings, Hours and Employment Costs Survey (EHECS), to be carried out, subject to section 25(2)(b) of the Act, for every quarter commencing 1 January, 1 April, 1 July and 1 October, in respect of which the forms and questionnaires referred to in Article 4 for each relevant quarter are due to be issued during the quarter concerned or during the immediately following quarter.

4.         An undertaking required by virtue of these Regulations to provide information to the Office shall provide such information -

(a)        by the completion of forms and questionnaires prepared by the Director General in accordance with section 23 of the Act, and

(b)        where directions under section 26 of the Act have been given to the undertaking, in accordance with those directions.

5.         An undertaking required by virtue of these Regulations to provide information to the Office shall be deemed to comply with that obligation where, with the consent of the Director General, the information is furnished by electronic means in a format or manner approved by the Director General.

6.         (1)       Everything that may be done under Part III (other than section 25) of the Act in respect of the collection of information or Part IV of the Act in respect of the use of records of public authorities for statistical purposes under the Act may be done for the purposes of these Regulations and the Act is to be read accordingly.

(2)       Reference in the Act to a requirement made, including a direction delivered pursuant to section 26, under the Act is to be read as including a reference to a requirement under these Regulations.

(3)       An officer of statistics under the Act is also such an officer for the purposes of these Regulations.

(4)       Sections 36 to 43 and, in so far as it relates to those sections, section 3, of the Act apply, with any necessary modifications, to these Regulations, and references in those sections to any provision of the Act shall, unless the context otherwise requires, be read as references to the corresponding provision of these Regulations.

7.         (1)       An undertaking which fails to comply with Regulation 3 or 4 commits an offence, and is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding €5,000.

(2)       A person who commits an offence to which Regulation 6(4) relates is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding €5,000.

SCHEDULE

Details (with such detailed breakdown as required by the forms and questionnaires referred to in Regulation 4), as regards the undertaking concerned, of:

(a)      total number of persons employed, separately identifying totals for full-time employees, part-time employees and apprentices,

(b)      totals of hours (both contracted and overtime) paid and of paid hours not worked, in each case separately identifying totals for full-time employees, part-time employees and apprentices,

(c)      total cost to employer of wages and salaries and other forms of compensation and benefits paid to persons employed, separately identifying totals for full-time employees, part-time employees and apprentices,

(d)      total cost to employer of social security contributions paid, respectively, for full-time and part-time employees and for apprentices,

(e)      total cost to employer of other forms of compensation and benefits paid or given to or for the benefit of full-time and part-time employees,

(f)      cost to the undertaking of pension contributions made on behalf of employees which relate to the period, and

(g)      total amount received of subsidies towards or refunds of the cost of direct remuneration paid to present or former employees, including apprentices.

¹ OJ No. L63, 12.3.1999, p. 6.

² OJ No. L203, 3.8.1999, p. 28.

³ OJ No. L55, 29.2.2000, p.53.

⁴ OJ No. L69, 13.3.2003, p. 1.

⁵ OJ No. L169, 8.7.2003, p.37.

¹ OJ No. L279, 22.10.2005, p. 11.

² OJ No. L293, 24.10.1990, p. 1.

³ OJ No. L6, 10.01.2002, p. 1.