One of the measures envisaged in the government’s austerity package is to lower the National Minimum Wage (NMW) by € 1 to € 7.65 per hour for an adult worker, arguing that the current level causes higher levels of unemployment in the sectors where it is most prevalent and prevents small and medium sized enterprises from adjusting wage costs downward. Besides that these arguments can be questioned on good grounds, the ICTU union confederation queries the entitlement of the government to reduce the NMW. ICTU’s legislation officer Esther Lynch argued, “There is nothing in the minimum wage legislation that provides the minister with power to reduce the minimum wage without going through the review mechanism.” Lynch also said that according to the ILO conventions the Enterprise Minister is not allowed to rewrite the current arrangements protecting the low-paid, the so-called Registered Employment Agreements (REAs) and Employment Regulation Orders (EROs), himself, as these are collective agreements from which he should refrain.
English: http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/unions-query-states-power-to-reduce ...
For more information, please contact the editor Maarten van Klaveren, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS) M.vanKlaveren@uva.nl. You may find further information on the ETUI at www.etui.org, and on the AIAS at www.uva-aias.net. © ETUI aisbl, Brussels 2010.