Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 12 Dec 2000

Vol. 528 No. 1

Written Answers. - Basic Minimum Wage.

Pat Carey

Question:

80 Mr. P. Carey asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the way in which it is proposed to make employers aware of the opinion of the Registrar of the Courts and of the Office of the Attorney General that guaranteed gratuities can be considered as part of an employees basic hourly minimum wage; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [29251/00]

Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment (Mr. T. Kitt)

The schedule to the National Minimum Wage Act, 2000, specifies the reckonable and non-reckonable pay components in calculating an employee's average hourly rate of pay in a specific pay reference period.

The issue to which the Deputy refers arose in the context of the Hotels Employment Regulation Order, Statutory Instrument No. 283 of 1999, which has a reference to guaranteed gratuities. In the course of drawing up proposals for a new employment regulation order, the chairman of the hotels joint labour committee, which has representatives on it from the Irish Hotels' Federation, IBEC and SIPTU, sought legal advice as to whether guaranteed gratuities were a reckonable or non-reckonable pay component under the National Minimum Wage Act, 2000. Legal advice from the Registrar of the Labour Court and the Office of the Attorney General was that guaranteed gratuities come within reckonable pay components under part 1 of the Schedule to the Act. The hotels joint labour committee subsequently published reformulated proposals on the 10 November 2000.

When the Labour Court makes a new employment regulation order, it is widely distributed to employers covered by the order and an advertisement is also placed in newspapers advising that an order has been made. Thus employers are made aware of their legal obligation under an employment regulation order.

Staff of the employment rights information unit of my Department deal with inquiries from, and offer information to the public on the National Minimum Wage Act, 2000. Where the information offered by the staff of the unit relates to the interpretation of guaranteed gratuities such information is given in accordance with the legal advice received. Labour inspectors, in their enforcement activity of the National Minimum Wage Act, 2000, also operate in accordance with this advice.