asked the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries the Government's attitude to the decision of a statutory wage fixing body, the Agricultural Wages Board, which body has refused to implement the £2 wage increase under Part I of the national agreement and to make arrangements for the second phase increase and the implementation of the cost-of-living escalator clause.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Agricultural Wages Board Decision.
40.
It is a statutory function of the Agricultural Wages Board to fix minimum wage rates for agricultural workers by order, from time to time, as the board think proper after a prescribed form of consultation with statutory wages area committees. The board and the wages area committees are composed mainly of workers' and employers' representatives.
I have no reason to doubt that when making orders fixing minimum agricultural wage rates, the board takes all relevant factors into consideration. Such orders are not referable to the Government but are laid before Dáil Éireann in the usual way.
Would the Parliamentary Secretary not agree that it seems extraordinary that a board set up by the Government to fix wages for agricultural workers should refuse to implement the national wage agreement, in view of the fact that the workers with whom they were dealing are the lowest paid in the country and work the longest hours in the country?
As I stated, it is not a matter for the Government. The Agricultural Wages Board are a statutory body set up to deal with agricultural wages and they only prescribe the minimum wage after taking all matters into consideration, the ability of the farmers to pay and so forth. I think the Deputy will agree that the vast majority of agricultural workers are now being paid far in excess of the minimum wage. I agree with the Deputy that the agricultural worker is a very important man. No one realises that more than the farmer. He knows that if he wants to keep him in employment he will have to pay him and has been paying him a decent wage. I should like to say also that there is nothing to stop a worker or a group of workers from negotiating with an individual employer for wages above the minimum.
Is the Parliamentary Secretary saying that the Agricultural Wages Board have no useful purpose?
No.
Why should they be allowed to fix a rate of wages without recognising that a national wage agreement has been reached? Why should they, above anybody else in the country, be allowed to get away with that?
As I said, the board are representative of farmers and workers and they prescribe the minimum wage.
Is the Parliamentary Secretary aware that it was the so-called neutrals who were appointed by the Government on the board who swayed the decision against the farm workers? The proposal by the workers' side for the national increase of £2 was turned down on the combined vote of the farmers and the neutrals, including the chairman. Would the Minister consider changing the neutrals and making them a little more neutral the next time he is making appointments.
I am sure they took all the relevant factors into consideration.
They certainly did.