I put the following question to the Minister today:
To ask the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs the reasons why casual labourers employed on post office engineering work in Kilkenny city are paid at the rate payable by the county council to labourers rather than at the rate payable by the corporation of Kilkenny to similar labourers, particularly in view of the fact that county council road workers are rarely employed in the Kilkenny urban area and that Kilkenny Corporation is the relevant local authority in the Kilkenny city area.
The Minister's reply was:
In provincial areas, casual labourers employed by my Department are paid the rates prevailing for road workers employed by the county councils in the same areas on the grounds that the type of work on which both groups are employed is comparable. The casual labourers employed by my Department in the Kilkenny urban area are paid the same rate as that paid by the Kilkenny County Council to its road workers in the same area.
This matter concerns a group of men who are in very weak bargaining position and, although it is very late in the night, I felt it was my duty to bring the facts of the case to the notice of the Minister and to help these people who have very little means at their disposal to protect themselves or to fight for their rights. When the Minister is aware of the facts, I am sure he will see that the right wage is given to these men, the corporation rates payable to workers on work similar to that being carried out by the Post Office labourers. The corporation pays a rate of 4/1½d. an hour for a 45-hour week which comes to about £9 5s. per week and the rate which the Department of Posts and Telegraphs pays to its labourers amounts to £7 8s. for the same number of hours in the week. The ESB pays a rate of 4/1½d. an hour to its workers for work practically identical to that being carried out by the Post Office casual labourers, as do civil engineering firms and all other employers who employ men on a similar type of work.
This is very bad example for a State Department to set. It is a bad example to employers in Kilkenny city who feel aggrieved when they see they have to pay the high rate of £9 5s. 0d. per week to their men, while a Government Department can get away with paying £2 less. The man digging a hole for the foundation of a building has £2 a week more than the man a few yards away from him digging a hole to lay a cable for the Post Office. State Departments should give a lead in this matter to private employers, especially the Department of Posts and Telegraphs which is one of the Departments which pays its way and whose men are engaged in work which will prove a great source of revenue to the Department. What makes this more unjust is the fact that they are working beside men employed by the Post Office who, because they are not tagged as casual labourers, who are more or less permanent labourers but doing the same type of work, also have nearly £2 a week more; they have about £9 2s. 6d. These other labourers employed by the Department, as well as having that big differential, enjoy much overtime.
I should hate to think that the reason for taking the county council rate in Kilkenny as the operative rate as against the corporation rate is that it is the lowest rate. It is interesting to speculate whether, if the county council rate happened to be higher than the corporation rate, the case would be made that they should be paid the corporation rate. The type of work they are doing is very hard and difficult. They are working on concrete which I believe has failed to yield to pneumatic drills and other machinery, and they deserve a just reward for their labour.
These few men who are employed in this casual capacity have been unemployed for most of the year up to now and this is the only employment break they have got. If they did not get this, they might have been better off because the corporation is now going ahead with a scheme to improve a road in the urban area and will be recruiting from the labour exchange men who are on unemployment assistance; these men will be paid the rate of 4/1½ an hour or £9 5s. per week. It will be seen, therefore, that these casual labourers employed in the Kilkenny urban area by the Department of Posts and Telegraphs definitely have a grievance. It is unfair to take advantage of their weak position by putting them on this rate of pay.
The Minister has said it has been the practice of his Department for years to give to such workers the rate paid by the local authority in the area. I submit that the local authority in this area is Kilkenny Corporation. The work the county council workers do in the urban area is confined to main roads, and there is really no heavy work, since the main roads in the city are in a good state. The number of hours the county council workers spend in the urban area is only a very small percentage of the number of hours the Corporation workers spend in the city. For that reason, as well as the other reasons I have given, I would appeal to the Minister to treat the Post Office workers in the way Kilkenny Corporation treat their workers. I am asking for nothing more than what is their right, a fair wage. I appeal to the Minister to see to it they will get this.
There is just one other point. Even if they were regarded in the same way as county council workers, the Department have not seen fit to give them even the tea-break which the county council workers have.
