I move:
That Seanad Éireann notes the commitment in the Government's "Action Programme for the Millennium" to introduce a national hourly minimum wage following early consultation with the social partners; welcomes the campaigns initiated by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, the Dublin Council of Trade Unions, the Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed and the Scheme Workers Alliance to secure a minimum wage; deplores the delay by the National Wage Commission in producing a report; and calls on the Government to honour its commitment to the Social Partners by agreeing a national minimum hourly rate without delay.
I am disappointed that the Government has tabled an amendment to the motion deleting everything after "That" and inserting a new wording. Apart from its conclusion, I have no problem with most of the amendment which begins:
Seanad Éireann supports the work of the National Minimum Wage Commission to establish the best way to implement the Government's commitment on the introduction of a minimum wage in its Action Programme for the Millennium; recognises the sensitivity of the issues involved in enhancing the welfare of persons in employment while at the same time protecting competitiveness and jobs;
However, I cannot agree with the final part of the amendment which states: "and welcomes the Commission's intention to report to the Tánaiste by the end of March, 1998.". Perhaps Senator Cassidy and his 34 colleagues on the Government side are capable of looking into a crystal ball, but there is not much time for the commission to report by the end of March. Initially the commission was to report by the end of December. There are only six days left in March and unless the commission works flat out over the weekend I do not think the report will be produced. This was further underlined by the Taoiseach's reply to a question on the Order of Business today in the Dáil when he failed to give a date for publication of the report.
I welcome the Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children, Deputy Moffatt, to the House but deplore the fact that the Tánaiste, the senior Minister with responsibility for this issue, has not come to the House to show her support for this important issue and for this debate. I am sure she has business she considers more pressing but this is an extremely important matter.
Sharing the benefits of economic growth more equally among all members of society underlines the spirit of Partnership 2000. We can embark upon sharing our growth in a number of ways, chiefly through the introduction of a statutory minimum wage. For this reason I welcome the commitment in the Government's "An Action Programme for the Millennium" to introduce a national hourly minimum wage, initially through consultation with the social partners. I deplore the delay in delivering on this commitment subsequent to which the question of implementation will arise.
The economy is going through a boom and there has been a consequent spin off in terms of job creation. There are indications in all high streets that employers are looking for staff. Almost every second shop window is displaying signs indicating staff vacancies. However, our economic booms fails to correlate with the type of wages being offered, particularly in the retail, sporting and service sectors where the majority of jobs are currently being created. Recent surveys show that some employers are creaming the economic boom and succeeding in making high profit returns by ensuring their staff are paid a pittance. For example, a sports shop in St. Stephen's Green shopping centre is selling trainers for more than £100 per pair but is paying staff a miserable £1.30 per hour according to a survey published by The Sunday Business Post on 1 February 1998. A sandwich shop on Grafton Street is looking for “bright and bubbly staff”, but is only prepared to pay them £2.75 per hour. A host of other retail outlets and restaurants are paying wages of between £2 and £3 per hour. Many of these low paid jobs are advertised in FÁS offices. If time permits, I will read a list of low paid jobs prepared by the Irish small and medium business sector, USI and The Sunday Business Post.
Waiting staff, sales assistants, cleaning staff, warehouse staff, porters and security staff among others are being exploited. Employers are crying out about worker shortages and are claiming people do not want to work because they are better off on the dole. Given some of the wages I have cited, I must concur with these employers and say that some people are better off on the dole. Working a 40 hour week in the sports shop I referred to in St. Stephen's Green shopping centre attracts a take home pay of just over £52 per week. I am not surprised unemployed people are not prepared to take up many of these jobs. Would many of those offering these jobs be prepared to work for such wages or allow their sons or daughters work for such wages?
The unemployed need to move into employment offering wages which will make a difference to their standard of living if they are to move out of the poverty trap which they and their families have been consigned to for the past two decades. They do not want to move into employment which will push them into more acute poverty than that experienced while surviving on inadequate social welfare payments. Implementation of a minimum wage can restore belief in the benefits of decent employment among the many thousands of long-term unemployed who have remained on the margins of society for so long.
Employer groups have argued against the introduction of a minimum wage on the grounds that it will prevent us from competing with other low wage economies in the Far East. Indeed, the Tánaiste has recommended the labour market in Hong Kong where the happy workers go off to work in dismal conditions for dismal pay. The opposite is what we need. There is no evidence to show that a minimum wage would prevent us from competing with low wage economies in the Far East. The European Commission requested Jacques Delors to prepare a White Paper on growth, competitiveness and employment and he did so in 1993. This document, which is one of the documents which form the basis of the Amsterdam Treaty, points out that sustaining low wages does not increase or maintain competition:
Compared to the newly industrialised countries, particularly those just entering that path such as China, the differential in labour costs is too great for any significant employment gains to be made in Europe from wage reductions in manufacturing industry. Only higher productivity and superior products will enable Europe to maintain a competitive advantage.
We have recognized that that is the case and that is the context in which the IDA goes abroad looking for investment.
I wish to answer claims that a minimum wage will increase the national wage bill by an exorbitant sum. In the United Kingdom a minimum wage set at 50 per cent of the average industrial wage would increase the national wage bill by only 1 per cent. That is not a great amount and would be a small price to pay for the abolition of exploitation in the labour market.
When the Government announced its intention to pursue the implementation of a minimum wage as a priority it consulted the social partners, and interest groups were invited to make submissions to a commission. This level of consultation is commendable because of the complexity of the argument and the issues involved in identifying exactly where a minimum wage should be pitched. Since December, however, the social partners and interest groups who put much time, effort and money into campaigns for a minimum wage have been waiting on tenterhooks for the publication of the report from the National Minimum Wage Commission. It was promised in December, in February and now in March. It is difficult to see it being published in the foreseeable future. I hope the Minister has information for the House in that regard.
I commend the efforts of the Irish Congress of Trades Unions, the Dublin Council of Trades Unions, the Irish National Organisation for the Unemployed and the Scheme Workers Alliance for the work they have done in campaigning and highlighting the need for a national minimum wage. As the boom continues and the monthly unemployment figures fall, we need to ensure that people moving into jobs are moving out of poverty. We must also ensure that employers are not exploiting workers in the name of high profits. The implementation of a minimum wage will play a vital role in preventing such exploitation.