Low paid private sector workers are falling further behind public employees in the pay stakes, union officials warned today.
Mandate, the third largest union in the State, said trade union pay strategies would have to target this growing gap.
John Douglas, the union's general secretary, said new research had shown lower paid private sector workers were dropping further and further behind other employees - which included lower paid workers in the public sector.
The research commissioned by Mandate showed the pay of local authority labourers increased by 57.7 per cent since 2000, compared to a 37.1 per cent rise for Tesco workers and 33.3 per cent for staff in Penney's clothing shops.
At the Irish Congress of Trade Unions' (ICTU) Biennial Delegate Conference in Belfast's Waterfront Hall, Mr Douglas said: “The growth in pay rates for lower paid workers in the civil service was also higher than for retail workers, with clerical officers and service attendants gaining increases of 43.5 per cent and cleaners achieving rises of 43.7 per cent.”
Mandate claimed if Tesco workers had received the same pay increases as local authority labourers over the last five-years - the current pay packet of €427.50 per week would have been €490.90, or €57.50 more.
The union said the growing income gap had also been identified in the Sustaining Progress Agreement between the social partners.
Mr Douglas said the growing gap between lower paid private sector workers and the rest of the workforce was part of the reason union members had become extremely sceptical about the current social partnership process.
“Social partnership is a means not an end and our members judge the process on the extent to which it delivers for them,” he said.
“Unfortunately, our experience has been that it hasn't done so sufficiently - and this is highlighted by the growing pay gap between lower paid private sector workers and the rest. It's no surprise then that Mandate members have voted by almost 90 per cent to reject the last two agreements.”
PA