Union seeks 7% increase for low-income workers

The trade union Mandate has put down an early marker in talks over a new national pay deal, calling for a flat-rate pay hike of €20 a week for low-income workers.

The increase of 50 cent an hour would translate as a 7 per cent rise for workers on the existing national minimum wage of €7 an hour.

The union's plea was backed by a coalition of anti-poverty campaign groups, which said yesterday that greater attention was needed in the pay talks towards tackling the growing number of "working poor" in the State.

Today will see the first plenary session of meetings aimed at agreeing a second phase of the Sustaining Progress partnership deal, which lapses at the end of the month.

Trade unions and public and private sector employers continued to hold separate discussions yesterday ahead of the presentation of their opening negotiating positions at the plenary session. The Mandate-led alliance highlighted a demand in Sustaining Progress calling for the reduction in income disparities.

Mr John Douglas, general secretary designate of Mandate, said: "The proportion of working people who were income-poor has increased by over 300 per cent in just three years, from 2.6 per cent of the workforce in 1998 to 8.1 per cent in 2001. And the gap is only getting bigger. We must face up to this reality and take steps to close this gap between the haves and the have-nots."

He said a pay rise of 50 cent was "a small price to pay in the interests of balancing the gross inequality in our country. It is also chicken feed when you consider the vast sums of money being paid to our top bankers who refuse to fulfil their tax obligations."

The other alliance members are the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul, the Forum for People with Disabilities, Migrant Rights Centre Ireland, CORI Justice Commission, Threshold, the Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed, Irish Traveller Movement, OPEN, the European Anti-Poverty Network Ireland and the National Women's Council of Ireland.

Mr Douglas said: "Employees have made many concessions under previous national agreements to create a prosperous economy. But not everyone has reaped the benefits. We cannot hail our country as an economic success and a fully participatory democracy when a significant portion of working people are unable to make ends meet."