asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs the rate of wages paid by his Department to workers employed in tunnelling for cable-laying.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Cable-layers' Wages.
Two grades of labourers, quasi-permanent and casual, are employed on trenching for the laying of underground cables. The quasi-permanent labourers are regular employees of the Department and are paid a flat rate of wages of 99/- a week. Casual labourers, on the other hand, are usually taken on for short periods only for particular jobs and are paid at the prevailing rate for unskilled general labourers in the area of employment.
asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs if he will state whether his Department recently sought to recruit, through the employment exchange, a number of workers for cable-laying in Kilmallock, County Limerick, at a wage of £2 15s. 0d. per week; whether the men whose names were submitted by the exchange refused to work at this rate of wages, and whether he is satisfied that the wage offered is justified.
A number of men sent forward by the employment exchange for casual work at Kilmallock at first refused to accept the rate of wages offered but they subsequently did so. They are being paid 1/3 an hour, which is the rate generally paid in the area to unskilled labourers.