Solicitor Virginija Petrauskaite has been appointed to the board of the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) by Damien English (Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment).

Petrauskaite practises in immigration and asylum law, employment law and human rights law.

She is currently working with the Irish Refugee Council, and worked with the Migrant Rights Centre Ireland managing casework in employment rights, irregular migration, and trafficking for labour exploitation. 

Other new board appointees are:

• George Maybury (former Secretary General of the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors),
• Stephen Driver (head of advocacy with IBEC),
• Sinead Gogan (Deloitte HR specialist),
• Barry O’Brien (HR director UCC), and
• Brendan McGinty (managing partner, Stratis Consulting). 

Appointments to the WRC board are statutory appointments under section 10 of the Workplace Relations Act 2015.

Expertise

Minister English said that he was confident that the appointees’ considerable experience and expertise would contribute enormously to the important work of the WRC.

The board comprises a chair and eight ordinary members. Its statutory functions are to:

• Prepare, in consultation with the director general, an annual work programme, and,
• Prepare and submit a three-year strategy. 

The current board chair is Dr David Begg, and there is one serving ordinary member, Ethel Buckley. One final ordinary member remains to be appointed.