Sir, - The recent survey on wages carried out by the international consultants Sedgwick Noble Lowndes give serious cause for concern for trade unionists who represent thousands of low paid workers.
The survey shows that Irish workers are amongst the highest paid in Europe on £7 per hour. Some trade union leaders point to this as proof that the type of agreements that they have negotiated over the past ten years or so ago were successful.
The Workers' Party Trade Union Group has always supported the principle of centralised bargaining as the best way of improving pay and conditions for the low paid. But what trade union leaders have allowed to happen over the past number of agreements has been of very little advantage to low paid workers. In reality they have agreed to massive tax reductions for the very highly paid, while low paid workers have seen very little improvement in the amount of tax they pay. Indeed, if one were to take in the taxation of social welfare payments, hospital and dental charges, service charges, the abolition of some tax reliefs benefiting mainly the low income earner, the lower paid are worse off now.
One must clearly question the concept of giving the same per centage increases right across the board. Two or three per cent can mean a hefty increase to someone on £50,000 a year, while it is of little value to the £10,000 a year worker.
The Workers' Party Trade Union Group will be lobbying the Minister for Finance for the promised tax cuts in the forthcoming budget to be aimed at the low paid. Furthermore, we will argue that those earning less than £200 per week should be exempt from paying tax. This, coupled with a minimum hourly rate of not less than the average industrial rate would, we believe, be a better position for the trade union leaders to take. - Yours, etc.,
Michael Finnegan,
Chairperson, The Workers' Party Trade Union Group, Lucan, Co. Dublin.