The trade union movement is set to step up its campaign for a National Minimum Legal Wage of £5 an hour on foot of its criticism of the Budget benefits to the low paid.
Irish Congress of Trade Unions general secretary, Mr Peter Cassells, said the Budget had been good for business and there was now "a powerful social and moral obligation on business people to distribute these gains by supporting a fair national minimum wage".
Mr Cassells seems to have switched his focus from the National Minimum Wage Commission set up by the Tanaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Ms Harney, to the Government as a whole.
It is believed the commission will not produce its report by December 31st, as originally envisaged.
Most members of the commission are unlikely to favour an Irish rate significantly higher than the British level, which still seems set to fall somewhere between £3.50 and £4 an hour.
However, unions will take cheer that the proposed British measure, revealed in outline last week, is far more wide ranging than expected.
For low-paid workers here, already disappointed by the modest Budget increase of £250 in personal allowances, a national minimum wage of £5 an hour represents a second bite of the cherry. It is one they will expect the unions to deliver.
That is why Mr Cassells and his colleagues, especially those in unions with many low-paid members like SIPTU and Mandate, will be stepping up the pressure. Business groups, especially those representing small and medium enterprises where low-paid workers are concentrated, will resist strongly any attempts to introduce a £5-an-hour rate.
Earlier this week the Small Firms Association produced a survey showing three-quarters of small and medium enterprises pay less than £5 an hour. The survey, which covers companies employing less than 50 people, also shows that a third of those surveyed pay less than £4 an hour and a fifth pay below £3.50.
Equally revealing was the response that showed only 8 per cent of those surveyed said employees were covered by Joint Labour Committees (JLCs).
The JLCs are supposed to provide unions and employers with a mechanism for agreeing pay and conditions in low-paid sectors like agriculture, catering, cleaning, hotels, hairdressing and clothing. The SFA findings suggest the JLCs have become irrelevant.
One reason may be that JLCs do not cover many growth areas of employment, some of which are not usually thought of as low-pay. A good example is local radio. Yet there are many young broadcasters working for rates well below £10,000 a year.
Contracts start as low as £6,200 for a 50-hour week, which works out at £2.38 an hour, or £1.60 less than an agricultural labourer or contract cleaner is entitled to under JLC agreements.
However, a rate of £5 an hour has been characterised by the SFA as a "ludicrous demand" that would cost jobs.
The main employers' body, IBEC, has also opposed a national minimum wage, although less vehemently than bodies like the SFA and the Irish Small and Medium Enterprise association. Most of its larger affiliates could certainly live with a national minimum wage of £3.50 an hour, or even £5. IBEC has already suggested the JLC system should be revamped, which could lead to several minimum rates, depending on the sector. For the unions, pay is never simply a matter of economics. When the SFA survey was published on Monday, Mr Cassells said SFA members should "hang their heads in shame". He accused the association of "attempting to use these shameful figures to blackmail the [minimum wage] commission, by threatening widespread job losses if a fair wage is introduced".
The ICTU maintains that "real pay is a real incentive" to work and, "the Minimum Wage Commission has a golden opportunity to make a very significant difference to the lives of thousands of working people".
With low-paid workers disillusioned by the Budget and a growing labour shortage in the low pay sectors like catering, direct action may well prove the most effective approach.
