MINISTER OF State for Labour Affairs Billy Kelleher has rejected Opposition claims that he suggested the minimum wage might be reduced from €8.65 an hour.
He told Fine Gael enterprise spokesman Leo Varadkar that he had recommended neither an increase nor reduction. During Dáil Question Time, Mr Kelleher said: “I am obliged to under the relevant Act to consider any recommendation that is made to me by the Labour Court.”
The Labour Court had to take into account issues such as unemployment, inflation and national competitiveness. When it decides on a rate “and makes it known to me as Minister, I will have to make a decision within three months on whether to accept, reject or amend it”.
Mr Varadkar, who called for no change in the rate for at least the next two years, said that a decision now “would give employers and employees the certainty they need”.
If the Labour Court followed the terms of the Act by taking into account “employment and competitiveness”, the only conclusion it could reach was a “savage cut in the minimum wage. That would be wrong and most inappropriate.”
Calling for an immediate decision he said “we need the Government to govern rather than to outsource its power to agencies. . . and the social partners”. Mr Kelleher said when the court “makes its determination, we will make an adjudication on that”.
