THE GOVERNMENT will take whatever legislative steps are necessary to protect the existing legal mechanism for setting minimum terms and conditions for around 250,000 workers, Minister for Enterprise and Employment Micheál Martin has said.
He said that the Government was "not impressed" with a legal challenge to the system taken by the Irish Hotels' Federation and a Co Clare hotelier in the High Court earlier this month.
The case involved a challenge to the constitutionality of laws under which joint labour committees and the Labour Court set minimum pay levels, as well as the specific procedures used to establish rates for much of the hotel sector last year.
In a settlement to the High Court case, the Labour Court agreed to quash an order it made last November fixing the wages and working conditions of some 25,000 low-paid hotel workers outside Dublin and Cork.
However, as part of the settlement, the challenge brought by the federation and Co Clare hotelier Michael Vaughan to the broader constitutional issues, which could have affected up to 250,000 workers, were not pursued.
Mr Martin said the Government was "very disappointed" the federation took the case. "This is an area of the economy where wages are low relative to other sectors.
"The hospitality sector benefited significantly from inward migration if the truth be told, more than most. That has never been acknowledged by the sector.
"Some years back, when Irish people were working in many of those jobs, they were being paid higher than the minimum wage. Now the minimum wage seems to be the maximum wage," he said.
Under the current system which dates back to the 1940s, minimum terms and conditions in a number of sectors, including hairdressing, contract cleaning and security, are set by joint labour committees.
The committees, which include employer and union representation, consider the issues and make a recommendation to the Labour Court, which in turn publishes an employment rights order, giving legal effect to minimum rates and conditions for the sector.
Mr Martin said that joint labour committee agreements bring order to the particular sectors.
"We will certainly be at one with the trade union side in terms of making sure that this particular edifice is shored up in whatever way it takes." He added that the joint labour committee edifice was one which the Government valued. "We believe in common basic standards and will do whatever we have to."
The Minister said that his department was liaising with the Attorney General's office in relation to the recent case.
In a statement after the settlement, the federation said the case had never been about challenging wage agreements but rather centred on "an unfair and unjust process" at the hotels' joint labour committee and the Labour Court.
After the case, the Labour Party and trade unions called on the Government to move swiftly to protect the system for setting minimum rates from possible future legal challenges from other employers.