The president of SIPTU, Mr Jimmy Somers, has assured union members that it will do everything necessary to secure a national minimum wage of £5 an hour by the end of 1998.
Angry delegates said that employers must not be allowed to hide behind Partnership 2000 to avoid paying decent wages.
In response to a call for one-day strikes, if necessary, to secure a national minimum wage, Mr Somers pointed out that SIPTU was already sanctioning strikes in low-paid employments. "I want to make it absolutely clear," he said, "that we are fighting low pay every day of the week." If the Government's Commission on a National Minimum Wage did not meet the union demand "we'll set our own standard," he said, "and we're not dependent on a commission to solve our problems."
He added that "low pay is low pay and, regardless of any national agreement, we will oppose it". A SIPTU report on low pay distributed to delegates yesterday showed that almost a quarter of Irish workers were earning less than two-thirds of the average industrial wage. Ms Marnie Holborow, of Dublin education branch, attacked the composition of the National Minimum Wage Commission for being weighted in favour of employers and containing no trade union representative. But then the Minister who appointed it was "Mary Harney, who said two years ago we should all be working like they do in Hong Kong, where they have low wages and no democracy," she said.
Mr Dermot O'Loughlin, of the civil aviation branch, said that more than half the staff in his company earned less than £5 an hour.
Mr Michael Kelly of the Dublin health services branch said that £5 an hour was not a huge wage. If a man was earning it and had to support one child and an adult dependant he would be entitled to Family Income Supplement.