Labour Capitulation on Low Pay Gets Worse‏

national | worker & community struggles and protests | press release Thursday July 28, 2011 19:42 by Paddy Healy - United Left Alliance

A fuller report from today’s Irish Independent on the Labour capitulation on Low Pay is carried below.

Not alone has the Labour Party agreed to the scrapping of the Sunday premium for low paid workers, it has also agreed to allow employers to claim inability to pay and ,if successful, to pay a lesser rate for normal working days. In circumstances in which demand is being continuously removed from the economy by government, this can only lead to continuous reduction in the direction of the minimum wage and the effective collapse of the system. Compliant employers will be progressively undermined by those paying a lower rate.

The scrapping of the Sunday premium will simply add to the profits of highly successful multi-national retail chains at the expense of their employees.

The 100th anniversary of the founding of the Labour Party in Clonmel by Larkin and Connolly in 1912 which will be held next year will be a in the nature of a wake.

The actions of the Labour Party are an insult to the memory of Larkin and Connolly. Larkin is rightly celebrated for his heroic battles on behalf of the low-paid. In addition, Connolly is celebrated for his heroic stand for Irish Independence and sovereignty. But the Labour Party is allowing internatonal financiers to suck the lifeblood out of Ireland and even allowing them to dictate cuts in low pay under the EU-IMF Deal. When it is considered that cuts in low pay will actually worsen the national finances by lowering the tax take, the capitulation of Gilmore on the JLC issue must be the most abject surrender of Irish sovereignty conceivable.

Paddy Healy   086-4183732
Member of National Steering Committee, United Left Alliance  

Employers can claim an 'inability to pay' under wage reforms

By Fionnan Sheahan and Anne-Marie Walshe 
Irish Independent, Thursday July 28 2011

Employers will be allowed to claim an inability to pay the rates agreed under the wage-setting system for low-paid staff, the Irish Independent has learned.

Sunday premium pay for those covered by the Joint Labour Committees (JLCs) will also be scrapped.

The controversial new rules governing the wages in the catering, hotels, retail, grocery, contract cleaning and some other sectors will be announced today.

Ahead of the publication, the Labour Party was accused last night of capitulating in an attack on the low paid.

Under the reforms to the JLCs, low-paid staff will be entitled to the same protection as other employees for working on a Sunday.

The existing Organisation of Working Time Act allows for staff to be compensated for working on Sunday through the negotiation of extra pay, an increased average wage across the week or a day off in lieu.

In reality, though, the scrapping of the Sunday premium payments will mean a pay cut for staff in those sectors who work on that day.

The number of JLC agreements is also widely expected to be reduced substantially.

The Government is also believed to have accepted the recommendation on the introduction of an inability-to-pay clause for employers.

The expert report on the area said there should be a "derogation on economic grounds" introduced, where the employer can claim it would damage the viability of the firm and cause job losses if they had to pay the rates agreed.

The United Left Alliance said the deal was done "in a time-honoured and cowardly manner", announced while the Dail wasn't sitting and just before ministers took holidays.

Full text at link.