Inspectors launch `blitz' on wage rates

New labour inspectors with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment have launched a three-month "blitz" to monitor implementation of the national minimum wage.

Seven inspectors taken on by the Department's Labour Inspectorate at the time of the introduction of the legislation have now been trained and are working.

"They have been trained to carry out all functions but for the moment they are working exclusively on a three-month blitz concerning compliance of the national minimum wage legislation," said the head of the inspectorate, Ms Dolores Kavanagh.

The new inspectors, the arrival of whom boosted numbers in the inspectorate from 10 to 17, have spent the past two weeks visiting businesses in Dublin industrial estates.

"The picture we are forming is good. There is a huge amount of compliance," said Ms Kavanagh. While some 12 per cent of companies overall have been found to be in breach of the legislation, in most cases it was by a marginal amount and due to a misunderstanding of the Act, she said.

The new inspectors will now begin targeting sectors in Dublin traditionally viewed as having low paid workers, such as hotels and restaurants. Thereafter, they will establish a programme of inspections to ensure visits to the regions every second week. While some low wage sectors have traditionally been covered by agreements on minimum wage rates, others have not and the introduction of the new legislation means the inspectors will for the first time be monitoring wage rates in these sectors.

Hotels and catering in Dublin are not covered by such agreements, while outside Dublin the sector is covered. The new law means people who are aged over 18 years and have two years experience must be paid at least £4.40 (€5.59) per hour. Persons under 18 years may be paid just over £3. Experience is not counted until after the worker has passed 18 years, so that workers must be 20 years of age and have two years experience, before being guaranteed £4.40 per hour.

Ms Kavanagh said data collected by the inspectors during their visits to workplaces will be given to a national monitoring committee which has been established.

She said senior inspectors in the unit are currently involved in visiting retail and grocery outlets nationally, and footwear and drapery outlets in Dublin and Dun Laoghaire. The inspectors are discovering problems with part-time workers not getting holiday entitlements, and full-time workers not getting public holidays.

"One of the worst breaches though is when the employer does not keep the records we require," Ms Kavanagh said. The department is planning an awareness campaign.