asked the Minister for Labour the total number of days of annual leave to which workers in Ireland are entitled; the way in which this compares with other EC countries; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
12.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Workers' Annual Leave.
11.
asked the Minister for Labour the number of public holidays in this country; the way in which this compares with other EC countries; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 11 and 12 together.
The Holiday (Employees) Act, 1973, provides that most employees are entitled to three weeks annual holidays for each leave year — that is, from 1 April to 31 March — with pro rata entitlements for periods of less than a year. The collective bargaining process has added a further four days for most employees and in addition there is an entitlement to eight public holidays.
The position in the EC is that statutory minimum annual leave entitlements vary from 14 days in Greece to 30 days in Spain. There is no statutory entitlement to annual leave in the UK. The average is about 20 days which is just above the 19 days holidays to which most employees in this country are entitled.
The number of public holidays in EC member states at present ranges between eight in Britain and Ireland, to 14 in Denmark, with an average of about 11.
The priorities of the Government relating to employment are concentrated in implementing policies which will lead to the preservation of existing jobs and the creation of new jobs. Declaring extra holidays would directly increase employment costs, and this would not be compatible with Government strategy.
I put it to the Minister that it is time, since the legislation dates from 1973, to review it and consider extending it and bringing it into line with the majority of countries within the EC in terms of holiday entitlements generally.
If unemployment were not as high as it is I would love to be the Santa Claus who would deliver a few holidays. Quite frankly the cost of an extra day, at the lowest level of the calculation would be £50 million to employers and industry. That would not take account of profits or inconvenience to industry. For example, in Europe there is a holiday on May Day so businesses are closing down on 1 May. What generally happens is that production on the preceding and following days are affected. So there are clearly major effects on industry.
In all these issues the facts have to be considered carefully. Several thousands, and maybe even hundreds of thousands of people get the minimum leave but the majority of the workforce get far more than the minimum number of days. I have spoken recently about changing some of the bank holidays, and I certainly intend to raise that aspect with the people involved.
That is the point I was going to raise. For instance, the Minister made a point on the radio during the past week about New Year's Day and about extending the Christmas holiday to a fortnight. Would he not consider changing the holiday on New Year's Day to a more appropriate time during the year when it would be of more benefit to tourism and to the country as a whole?
I was thinking along those lines, but industry responded by saying that even when people work on 1 January, after the Hogmanay and New Year's Eve parties, they are not in the best physical condition. It is very hard to satisfy everybody. I will certainly see what can be done about that. I know some people, for example bar staff — as I have been reminded by letters from wives of hard workers — finish work on Christmas morning at 2 a.m. and are expected back at work at midday on 26 December. We cannot generalise, but this is certainly an area I will look at. We do not take any great delight in being out of line with other countries in regard to May Day in particular, but at a cost of £50 million, that would be too much to make it a bank holiday.
As the Minister is highlighting the issue of May Day, since Ireland is one of only three countries in the European Community that does not honour May Day — Denmark and the United Kingdom being the other two — it is time, in view of the calls from one of the social partners, the trade union movement, for the Government to give serious consideration to honouring May Day. Industry has devices and means available to it, in negotiation with the workforce, to keep production in motion and a bank holiday or a public holiday does not mean, in this day and age, that all industry must close down.
No, but as the Deputy knows the costs would rise drastically. I am not denying that we are one of only three countries that do not honour May Day and I suppose I could argue that other countries are out of line in that they do not have St. Patrick's Day, but I do not want to get into that argument. The cost factor is stopping me from declaring another bank holiday, and nothing else. If industry was doing particularly well and we did not have to worry about the fact that 17.9 per cent of the labour force is without a job, I think we could do that. I will not rule it out indefinitely but at the moment we are asking industry to create more jobs, not to give more time off.
Would the Minister agree that his objections to the granting of May Day as a national holiday are ideological rather than financial?
The Deputy obviously has not been listening to me or seeks to misrepresent me.
I have listened carefully.