Cut dole pay to get jobless back to work says OECD
Martin Nolan
HARD TIMES: Joan Burton has ruled out a Coalition split over Richard Bruton's plans on Sunday payments for workers
LOW-paid workers and those on the dole could see their income shrink in the coming months.
Up to 200,000 workers face pay cuts in a Government reform of pay deals.
And a global economic thinktank, the Paris-based OECD, has urged a cut in the dole payments for Ireland’s 440,000 unemployed to encourage them back to work.
The proposed change in wage deals would affect workers in hotels, restaurants, retailing and other sectors.
They would lose their legal entitlement to special Sunday premium payments under the proposals put forward by Minister for Enterprise and Jobs, Richard Bruton.
Legally binding employment regulation orders, which govern pay and conditions, would no longer set a Sunday premium.
There had been some speculation that the move could cause the first significant rift in the Fine Gael-Labour Coalition, but Social Protection Minister Joan Burton said today that they were “absolutely” agreed on the way forward.
Ms Burton explained: “I am asking my department at the moment to do a study on the impact to low-paid workers.”
She said the Programme For Government allowed for changes to employment law and it would be “balanced reform”.
OVERHAUL
Currently people who work in grocery, security and hairdressing get double time for Sunday working and in other sectors the rate is time and a third or time and a half.
Mr Bruton’s proposals are part of a plan to overhaul the system of setting minimum terms and conditions for work sectors containing more than 200,000 workers.
Instead of Sunday premium payments, workers would get time off in lieu, a “reasonable allowance” or an overall pay increase. Some workers overtime rates could also be hit under the proposals, with some rates decreasing and others increasing in a bid to standardise arrangements across the various sectors.
- Michael Lavery
