EMPLOYMENT REGULATION:WAGE AGREEMENTS in the construction, retail, catering, agriculture and a number of other industries are to be reviewed, Minister for Enterprise Mary Hanafin confirmed yesterday.
The Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) described the move to review the system of employment regulation orders (EROs) and registered employment agreements (REAs) as a fresh “attack on incomes” following the recent cut in the national minimum wage.
The establishment of the review in the first quarter of 2011 was a commitment under the agreement signed by the outgoing Government with the European Union and International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The abolition of EROs and REAs, which stipulate fixed rates of pay in certain sectors as well as other working conditions, has also been the subject of intensive lobbying by employers’ group Ibec.
The review will be conducted jointly by the chairman of the Labour Court, Kevin Duffy, who will act “in an ad hoc capacity”, the Department of Enterprise and Dr Frank Walsh, an economist specialising in labour market competition and policy at University College Dublin.
The closing date for submissions to the review will be February 25th, and the review will be completed within six weeks of this date, Ms Hanafin said.
“We need to ensure that statutory wage-fixing mechanisms work effectively and efficiently, and that they do not have a negative impact on economic performance and employment levels,” the Minister said in a statement yesterday.
The announcement of the review was welcomed by Ibec.
“Many of Ireland’s regulated wage rates are too high by international standards,” said Ibec director Brendan McGinty.
The current system of joint labour committees (JLCs), which set sectoral pay rates under legally-binding EROs, is “no longer fit for purpose”, he added.
Chambers Ireland said the review of wage-setting mechanisms was “long overdue”, and their abolition, combined with the reduction of the minimum wage to €7.65 an hour, would “help support competitiveness across the economy”.
Ictu also welcomed the review on the grounds that it was “a real opportunity to refute the ideological attack on incomes” launched by the outgoing Government.
“The attack on the REAs and EROs is part of that campaign, and a clear line can be drawn between the cut in public sector salaries, the cut in welfare rates, the cut in the minimum wage and the attempts to demolish key wage-setting mechanisms such as the REAs and EROs,” said Ictu general secretary David Begg.
He also questioned the involvement of EU institutions in the process, saying that EU treaty law specifically forbade their involvement in national wage-setting.
The 13 JLCs in existence apply to catering, contract cleaning, wholesale bottling, agriculture, hairdressing, hotels, law clerks, milling, retail and security.
There are also 68 registered employment agreements covering areas such as construction and electrical contracting.
The Department of Enterprise said that in some cases the terms of the REAs had not changed “in some years”.
