Vol. 405 No. 7
17 Mr. Kavanagh asked the Minister for Labour whether he will support the introduction of EC-wide wage legislation which the President of the European Commission, Mr. Jacques Delors, stated was essential to advance social cohesion in the EC.
While the President of the EC Commission has referred to the need to ensure that employers receive fair wages he has not called for the introduction of a European-wide minimum wage.
The introduction of EC-wide minimum wage legislation would, I consider, not be a feasible development since wage levels are primarily determined by the conditions prevailing in each labour market. Furthermore, I am not convinced that such a development is the solution to the problem of low pay.
As I have previously stated, measures to tackle this problem must cover a range of areas such as education, training, social benefits and taxation as well as the question of pay. A major contribution can also be made by increasing the level of job opportunities available.
Pay and employment creation policies are central to the new Programme for Economic and Social Progress. A special feature of the programme's pay provisions is that those on low incomes will receive proportionally higher pay increases than those on higher incomes. These increases, together with improvements in the family income supplement and income tax reductions, will result in substantial benefit to the low paid.
The programme also provides that during the next three years the Employer-Labour Conference will consider all the issues relating to a statutory minimum wages, including the operation of the Joint Labour Committee system.
