At their monthly meeting today (Wednesday), the Executive Council of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions were unanimous in roundly condemning the Cabinet for approving “an anti-worker" Action Plan on Competitiveness”.
Speaking on behalf of our 46 affiliated unions, General Secretary Owen Reidy said:
“Government is right not to be complacent about Ireland’s current position in the international rankings as the most competitive country in the Eurozone. But, their new Action Plan on Competitiveness is nothing more than a ruse for taking a wrecking ball to recent wins on workers’ rights.
“The writing was on the wall since last summer, that Government had lost its appetite for delivering on their pandemic dividend to the army of low paid, essential workers who kept our country running during some of its darkest days five short years ago. The economic uncertainty around Trump’s tariffs has provided the cover to break their promises to improve minimum employment standards to that which is guaranteed to workers across the EU.
“The row-backs on the living wage, paid sick leave, abolishing sub-minimum youth rates, minimum pay rates for employment permits and pension auto-enrolment have nothing to do with hard evidence, as is crystal clear from the findings of the sick pay business impact survey. It is solely the result of Government cowing to intense lobbying from business representatives, which leave the lowest-paid, sick, young, migrant, and retiring workers to carry the cost of buying employers’ silence.
“The unilateral and unjustifiable back-tracking by Government this week has shown them to be an unreliable negotiating partner for Irish workers. They must revisit their decisions or risk doing untold damage to industrial peace in the already uncertain and chaotic times ahead.”
End
Notes to editor:
Eurostat figures last week show that Ireland has one of the lowest average hourly labour costs (wages plus employer PRSI) in Western Europe.
The value of the minimum wage relative to wages in the economy has been allowed to plummet over the years. In the seven years prior to commencing the agreed four-year roadmap to turn the minimum wage into an adequate living wage it increased by a meagre €1.95 (2016-2022).
Ireland is one of only two EU member states to pay young adults a sub-minimum wage.
Prior to 2023, Ireland was one of only three EU member states not to require employers to continue to pay their employee’s wage for a set period if they were too sick or ill to work. At five days, we now have the stingiest statutory sick pay scheme in the EU.
Ireland is the only country in the OECD not to have a mandatory employer pension contribution.
The minimum salary requirements for general employment permits had not increased for almost a decade. The multi-year pay restoration roadmap was paused after the first round of increases, following intense lobbying from business interest groups.
