SENIOR FINE Gael and Labour Ministers differed yesterday on the extent of changes to terms and conditions of sectoral pay agreements that will be included in the revised memorandum of understanding with the EU and IMF.
Fine Gael Minister for Enterprise Richard Bruton had said on Wednesday that a reversal in the €1 cut in the minimum wage would be included in a revised agreement between the Government and the EU and IMF, to be unveiled today.
He said restoration of the minimum wage of €8.63 per hour would be more than compensated for by reductions in pay and conditions for a potential 240,000 workers who were protected by “archaic” joint labour committee (JLC) agreements.
However, in the Dáil yesterday, Tánaiste and Labour leader Eamon Gilmore said the minimum wage increase and JLC reforms were separate issues.
Joint labour committees, which have union and management representatives, set pay rates in various sectors which are then made legally binding.
Mr Gilmore said the “reversal of the cut in the national minimum wage is not conditional on anything and also indicated that no decision on changes in JLC arrangements would be taken until a review currently being done was completed.
“There is a separate issue, the review of the JLC system. A commitment was given in the programme for government, too, that there would be a review of the joint labour committee system and the employment regulation order system that applies to it.
“An independent review of the system has been under way for some time . . . That review is due to report in the next couple of weeks and when it does the outcome will be considered by the Government,” he said.
But speaking in London yesterday, Mr Bruton underlined his earlier comments by saying the EU and IMF have “a very high expectation” that there will be major reforms to national pay deals that will cut overtime, sick pay and other benefits for up to 300,000 workers.
He said IMF-EU scrutiny of a review of the joint labour committee system, to be completed shortly, would be more stringent.