asked the Minister for Agriculture if he will increase the wages of agricultural workers on the State farms beyond the minimum laid down by the Agricultural Wages Board.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Wages on State Farms.
Mr. Walsh
At all but one of the farms under the control of my Department the farm workers are paid wages higher than the minimum weekly rate for the district as prescribed by the Agricultural Wages Board. The workers at the one farm referred to are not willing to work on the basis of a weekly contract of 54 hours per week and they are accordingly being paid at the hourly rate prescribed by the Agricultural Wages Board.
Will the Minister not agree that it is the minimum that is laid down by the Agricultural Wages Board and that there is no obligation on the Minister to pay only that wage?
Mr. Walsh
The minimum laid down by the Agricultural Wages Board is for a 54-hour week.
It does not bind the Minister.
Mr. Walsh
The Agricultural Wages Board is there and they regulate the price.
The minimum price.
Mr. Walsh
The Minister has no function in the regulation of prices.
He can pay higher wages if he wants to.
The board lays down the minimum wage but there is no reason in the wide, earthly world why the Minister could not increase that. I have heard, and the Minister has heard, Deputies saying in this House that nine-tenths of the farmers pay more than the minimum. If that is the case, why does the Minister not pay the labourers at Johnstown Castle over and above the minimum laid down by the board?
Mr. Walsh
These men are not on a weekly wage; they are on an hourly wage.
What is the difference?
Mr. Walsh
There is a big difference.
It is the minimum.
Mr. Walsh
If there is a differential in the rates of pay in the college where the men were working at a weekly wage——
It is because they have been coerced. The labourers at Johnstown Castle, the farm to which the Minister refers, did not get that differential because they refused to work more than 47 hours per week and if they are being penalised or victimised for that, I think it is a bad policy for the Minister to pursue.
Mr. Walsh
If the Deputy uses his good influence and gets those men to work at the weekly rate for 54 hours we will give the differential.
I will not ask them to work for 54 hours a week.