Donegal County Council opposes cuts to the Minimum Wage
Published: 23 February, 2010
Donegal County Council opposes cuts to the Minimum Wage
Sinn Féin proposal backed unanimously
Donegal Sinn Féin Councillors, Pádraig Mac Lochlainn and Mick Quinn have welcomed Donegal County Council's recent call at the request of Sinn Féin, for An Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade, and Employment, Mary Coughlan, not to cut the Minimum Wage of €8.65 an hour.
They described the Government's amendment to the Industrial Relations (Amendment) Bill 2009 in order to cut minimum wage rates as "an attack on Ireland's working poor".
Cllr Mac Lochlainn and Quinn said:
"The whole context of this Bill indeed has changed since it was indicated that the Minister intends to amend it to allow employers to pay less than the minimum wage, and the minimum agreed rates in other sectors under Employment Regulation Orders and Registered Employment Agreements on the basis that companies can claim an 'inability to pay.'
"There are an estimated 300,000 workers who will potentially have their wages cut if that happens. Here in Donegal, well over a third of our workforce are getting by on the minimum wage. These are people who are already surviving on well below the average industrial wage and many of whom could be described as the 'working poor', people who despite working hard find it difficult to meet their mortgages, rents and bill payments.
They continued:
"It was bad enough that these workers have taken a pay cut due to the Government's levy and that low paid public sector workers had to endure a 5% pay cut. Many in low wage sectors such as security, hairdressing, hotels, pubs and so on are not unionised and are therefore more vulnerable to their wages and conditions being undermined.
"And now that this legislation, designed originally to protect workers in such situations, is amended, they will have no legal protections against their wages being driven below the minimum rates and the legal protections will count for nothing".
ENDS
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