asked the Minister for Agriculture if he will review the position of workers employed upon State farms with a view to according them the wage differential which formerly operated in their favour.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Wages of State Farm Workers.
At all but one of the farms under the control of my Department the farm workers are paid a differential of 5/- a week over the minimum weekly rate for the district as prescribed by the Agricultural Wages Board. The workers at the one farm referred to are unwilling to work on the basis of a weekly contract of 54 hours per week and they are, accordingly, being paid at the hourly rate prescribed by the Agricultural Wages Board.
Will the Minister not agree that the terms of the last agricultural minimum wages Order permit of workers having the right to decide whether or not they will work a 50-hour or a 54-hour week? In these circumstances, does he not agree that if workers refuse to work a 54-hour week they are exercising their right under that Order and that the non-payment of the differential in that case represents a contravention of the Order?
I am glad to think that it did not require an Order of the Agricultural Wages Board to declare the right of free men in the Irish Republic to determine what length of time they choose to work. In the future, as in the past, no man can be compelled to work in this country unless he wishes to.
Unless he is hungry, when he has to work.
These men are not hungry. They have elected to work on a certain basis and, with the liberality characteristic of this Administration, their wishes have been respected. Surely the Deputy does not wish me to serve an ultimatum on them that they must work on whatever system I prescribe, whether they like it or not. They made an election and I am quite prepared to fall in with their wishes.
Will the Minister indicate why these men are refused the differential for a 50-hour week, whereas men in other parts of the country who are working under similar conditions on State farms receive the differential for a 50-hour week?
The principle laid down is that any person working on a weekly contract of labour on a farm controlled by my Department is to receive 5/- per week over the minimum wage paid in that area. If, however, workers in a given farm express their preference for an hourly rate as being more acceptable to them than a weekly contract, I am not prepared to impose upon them that which I prefer, when it is a matter of strong feeling that they should be allowed to work on the hourly basis.
They have not so elected. They have no choice but to do so.
My information is that they have.
That is not so.
Let them change over to the 54-hour contract of wages weekly.