I will deliver on our behalf the opening statement, and then we are both happy to chip in in the discussion. On behalf of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, I thank the members of the committee for the invitation to input into its considerations of the recommendations of the Citizens' Assembly on Gender Equality. I am accompanied by my colleague, Dr. Laura Bambrick, as the Chair said. As requested, we are limiting our opening remarks to the recommendations on pay and workplace conditions, that is, recommendations 32 to 36, but, as the Chair said, if time allows we are happy to stray into other areas covered in our original submission.
On recommendations 32 and 33, relating to the gender pay gap, I will not read them out because I think we are all familiar with them and for the sake of time. Currently, the most up-to-date EUROSTAT figure for Ireland's gender pay gap is 11.3%, based on 2018 data, below the EU average of 13%. We recognise the significant issues surrounding how the pay gap is calculated and measured. That was outlined by the Nevin Economic Research Institute in its submission to the committee. The Gender Pay Gap Information Act also acknowledges this and, in turn, requires employers to report using a range of indicators, which we welcome. We are very pleased that gender pay gap audits are currently under way in employments of more than 250 employees. Next week we will publish a guide for trade union workplace representatives participating in the process, to be launched by the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman. We have long called for the introduction of this type of reporting, and we await with interest the publication of these reports by employers in December. I acknowledge the role of the Chair in this area because she was the first person to publish a Bill of this type in the Oireachtas. We had wanted and hoped that the process would require employers to discuss any gap identified with workers and their representatives and to agree a joint approach to tackling the gap. That was not to be, but unions will be knocking on employers' doors from December seeking discussions and agreement as to how any gaps identified will be addressed in a timely and effective manner.
Moving on to the recommendation on the living wage, No. 34, we welcome the programme for Government commitment to eradicate hourly low pay from the Irish economy, which comes on foot of new EU rules on moving to adequate minimum wages. The European Commission, in its impact assessment of the directive, notes that women workers throughout the EU are almost twice as likely to be earning the minimum wage than men. Some 60% of all workers on minimum pay are women, including in Ireland, and the proportion is up to 70% in some member states. Addressing the inadequacy of our minimum wage, which is currently at 80% of the at-risk-of-poverty threshold, will positively contribute to gender equality, narrow the gender pay and pension gaps and lift large numbers of women out of in-work poverty. Specifically, the EU impact assessment estimates that Ireland's gender pay gap will decline by almost 10% when Ireland increases its minimum wage to 60% of the hourly median wage. Some member states are taking swift action to raise their wage floors towards more adequate levels. Earlier this year the German Government and Parliament took the decision to increase the minimum wage from €9.60 an hour in December 2021 to €12 by October 2022, a rise of 25%, which is approximately 60% of Germany's median hourly wage. In our submissions to the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment consultation on the phase-in of the living wage and to the Low Pay Commission on the hourly rate of the minimum wage in 2023, we too recommended swift action and that the minimum wage becomes the living wage.
Congress reiterates this recommendation to the committee today. While we do not dispute that certain sectors will face a larger potential increase in their wage bill compared to the estimated 1% overall wage bill increase, we draw the committee’s attention to the European Commission’s impact assessment finding that the negative impacts on SMEs are expected to be limited.
A third area is collective bargaining and recommendation No. 35. From our point of view, this is a really important recommendation from the citizens' assembly. Collective bargaining is a key means through which employers and trade unions can establish fair wages and working conditions and provide the basis for sound labour relations. Collective bargaining agendas have broadened over time to address issues such as workplace discrimination and sexual harassment, equal pay and opportunities, the care responsibilities of workers and the impact of domestic violence in the workplace. All workers should have the right to influence and shape the conditions under which they work, yet today in Ireland many workers are denied this fundamental right. Its importance is illustrated by the recent pay deal in the early years sector, which came into effect just last week. Some 70% of the 27,000 workers, predominantly women, in that sector received a pay increase after that pay deal.
A couple of processes are under way that have the potential to address this serious decent work deficit. The EU directive on minimum wages will strengthen and extend the coverage of collective bargaining by obliging member states with fewer than 80% of workers covered by these agreements to take active steps to promote this tool. This directive has the potential to positively transform the landscape for collective bargaining in Ireland. On foot of this requirement, work is very advanced on a high level group established through the Labour Employer Economic Forum, LEEF. If we are to achieve goal 8 of the sustainable development goals and provide decent work for all, we must grasp these opportunities to finally introduce a mature industrial relations system.
Increased resourcing of the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, is an important recommendation. The WRC is currently operating with around 50 labour inspectors. There is an urgent need to increase this number. It was agreed as part of the previous social partnership agreement, Towards 2016, to increase the number of inspectors to at least 90. In the meantime, the workforce has grown to an all-time high of more than 2.5 million people.
On the statutory right to reasonable access to flexible working, Congress led the campaign for a statutory right to request remote working. As unions, we see daily the huge benefits remote working is having for workers and their families, businesses, communities and the environment. We welcome the commitment from the Tánaiste to introduce workers’ rights on how employers handle requests for remote working arrangements and we are working with the officials in his Department to amend his Bill to make it fit for purpose.
However, unions are concerned by the emergence of a work-life balance privilege gap between workers in jobs that can be done remotely and workers in jobs requiring a physical presence. To reduce the potential for a two-tier workforce between the remote working haves and have-nots, ICTU has been calling for workers’ rights in requesting all types of flexible working arrangements, not just remote, that is, arrangements such as flexi-time, part-time, job shares, split shifts, compressed hours, etc. This is already a long-established workers' right in the UK and in EU peer countries. We raised this in our evidence to the citizen’s assembly and we are delighted it made the introduction of a statutory right to request flexible working one of its recommendations.
A 2019 EU directive on work-life balance gives carers and parents of young children a right to request flexible work. It is our view that limiting this right is a lost opportunity and the right to request flexible working arrangements should be available to all workers. Earlier this year, the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Deputy O’Gorman, published the heads of a Bill to give effect to the directive. We engaged with his Department on these, but unfortunately the Bill had not progressed further than pre-legislative scrutiny before the summer recess and Ireland has missed an EU deadline to transpose an important workers’ right into national law. We welcome reported Cabinet sign-off of the Bill earlier this week and we urge the Minister to prioritise the legislation. We reiterate our call to him to be more ambitious than the minimum requirements of the directive and make the right to request flexible working available to all workers.
I thank the committee members for their attention and we are happy to take any questions.
