JLC Must Go
Published on June 01, 2011. Appeared in Independent Group Newspapers. Written by Gavin Duffy.
When we hear that those who ran our banks and our country into the rocks got paid hundreds of thousands in salaries, top upped with bonuses, we get very angry. Therefore, when Minister Richard Bruton states his intention to cut the pay of our lowest wage earners we understandably shout stop! It just doesn’t seem fair that the lowest paid workers should be the first in line for pay cuts.
But is it fair that the person working in a shop on a Sunday should according to the law have wage that is significantly lower than the waitress working in an adjacent hotel? Should a person cleaning a shop on a Sunday be paid 40% less than a chamber maid in a hotel?
The Joint Labour Committee, the JLC, the system that puts a higher value on certain workers such as those in hotels, construction, security and electrical engineering is an anachronism. Somewhere in the past certain workers got sweetheart deals. So if you have a cup of tea and sandwich in your local hotel on a Sunday, the person who serves you has to be paid, by law a minimum of about, €14 per hour, that is, approximately €10 per hour plus a premium for Sunday of about 30%. However the person who makes you a sandwich at the deli’ counter in the local shop is paid, by law a minimum of about €9 per hour.
Ask yourself who is paying for this? If you eat out on a Sunday you end up paying more for your meal to cover the unsustainable wage costs. And they are unsustainable. That’s why so many hotels now have stopped doing Sunday lunches. Many also don’t have their bedrooms cleaned on a Sunday but leave them until Monday to be cleaned thus saving 40% on wage costs.
It particularly hits hotels in the border counties where the minimum wage across the border works out at around 25% lower than our JLC minimum wage rate.
Low paid workers need to be protected but the JLC doesn’t protect it privileges only certain workers. It is about time we had one, undisputed, transparent and legally binding minimum wage for all. Let’s incentivise employers to take on staff rather than letting them go. Instead of premium payments for working on a Sunday why not allow employers to give time off in lieu.
Finally a question I was asked recently. The proprietor of a petrol station told me that with the increase in drive offs, people not paying for their petrol, as well as the constant problem of shop lifting, he wanted to take on security staff. But on a Sunday according to our employment laws the person serving behind the counter has minimum wage of 40% lower than the security guard. The proprietor asked why does our law stipulate two minimum wages? Why does the the Security Guard get a much higher hourly rate? He claims the Security person is actually doing very little hard work as their job is to observe, whereas in a busy petrol station the person at the till works flat out. The proprietor wanted to know why does the Irish Trade Union Movement, which talks a lot about equality, favour the security person over the counter attendant? I had no answer but the proprietor barked back , ‘because the law and the JLC is an ass’.