Private sector pay calls may not help all low-paid workers

Finance Minister Brian Lenihan

BY STEPHANIE LORD

PAY INCREASES called for by private sector trade unions will not help many low paid workers who need them as they do not have trade union membership.
Unions seeking increases for workers after the collapse of the social partnership talks have a total membership of 550,000 workers throughout the 26 Counties. There are a total of 2.1 million workers in the state.
SIPTU will urge employers to pay non-union members increases but only if they were sure that trade union members were receiving the benefit.
The pay talks may be reconvened at the end of August. It is unlikely that the trade unions will receive the increases that they have sought throughout the pay talks as it is said that the Government is completely opposed to the union’s requests even though they have reduced them to merely match the rate of inflation rather than surpass it.
The employers’ body, IBEC (Irish Business and Employers’ Confederation), has repeatedly refused to agree to pay increases to match inflation.

INFLATION
Inflation has dropped from 5 per cent to 4.4 per cent over the summer but this may come as a result of summer sales. Finance Minister Brian Lenihan has said that employers may have to dip into profits if they wish to secure a deal in any reconvened pay talks and avoid industrial action by trade union members. He added: “It wouldn’t do for employers to expect all the restraint to be on the part of the unions or the workers.”
Trade unions will be eager to secure pay increases and gains in job security, given reports this week that up to two-thirds of small businesses are considering implementing pay freezes and 40 per cent of employers are considering making many of their employees redundant.
The most recent figures released by the Central Statistics Office show a 15 per cent year-on-year decline in the construction industry, one of the sectors that has taken much of the impact of the economic downturn.