SF warns wages of 240,000 may be hit

THE HEADS of legislation reversing the cut in the minimum wage would be published before the end of next month, Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore told the Dáil.

He said reversing the cut was not conditional on anything. “It is a commitment that was given in the programme for government and it is being delivered in the manner I have described.’’

Mr Gilmore was responding to Opposition demands that the Government’s position on the issue be clarified.

Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald said she welcomed “the Government’s U-turn has come the full 360 degrees’’, adding that it was also proposed to cut the wages and conditions of almost 240,000 workers currently protected under the joint labour committee (JLC) system such as cleaners, workers in the security industry, agriculture and so on.

“It seems obvious that this was the price demanded by the IMF to reverse the cut in the minimum wage,’’ Ms McDonald added.

Mr Gilmore said that, as far as he could see, the “only 360 degree revolution’’ had been the one taken by Ms McDonald.

“When she asked me this day last week about the national minimum wage, she seemed to be incredulous that the Government was serious about proceeding with the reversal of the cut.’’

Joe Higgins (SP) said the Government was promising legislation to restore the minimum wage, “a poverty wage, for 60,000 workers, but now making that legislation conditional on 250,000 extremely low-paid other workers being hammered by having their anti-social allowances taken from them, for example, because the EU-IMF demands it’’.

Mr Gilmore said the joint labour committee system was a separate issue. A commitment was given in the programme for government to review the system and an independent review was under way headed by Labour Court chairman Kevin Duffy.

Richard Boyd Barrett (ULA) said low-paid workers in hair-dressing, contract cleaning and agriculture would now have their wages and conditions attacked.

Mr Gilmore replied: “If the deputy had a titter of genuine concern for people on the minimum wage he would have welcomed this morning the clear commitment by the Government to reverse the cut.’’