Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)

I wish to share time with Deputy Peadar Tóibín. I thank the Technical Group for giving us the opportunity to speak on this hugely important issue that affects a great number of families throughout the country.

I wish to put on record that Sinn Féin will vigorously oppose any attempt by this Government to abolish the joint labour committees. This reprehensible and shameful policy is directed at some of the most vulnerable people working in this State. It is immoral and wrong that the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Richard Bruton, should even consider introducing measures that would result in low-paid workers having their meagre wages reduced further. These proposals are being considered at a time when the cost of living is spiralling through the roof and the gap between rich and poor is always widening.

Earlier this month I was part of a Sinn Féin delegation, including Deputies, which met in Leinster House with trade union officials and workers employed in the service sector who were campaigning courageously to retain the JLCs. At that meeting we made clear our determination to oppose the implementation of what we see as aggressive change in employment legislation which would have far-reaching implications for thousands of families. The findings of the Duffy-Walsh review into JLCs and registered employment agreements, REAs, must be published without delay or further equivocation by the Minister.

As Dr. Michelle O'Sullivan, an industrial relations expert at the University of Limerick, told the Commercial Court in March, the conditions that led, some 60 years ago, to the establishment of a system for setting minimum pay and conditions for 190,000 vulnerable low-paid workers still exist. It is also the case that only six of every 100 workers in the catering sector are members of trade unions. The joint labour committee system provides a negotiating forum for workers who would otherwise be denied a voice. JLCs are an important mechanism for protecting the wages and conditions of low paid workers who, for the most part, earn under €10 an hour and are already scraping the bottom of the pay scale. If they are abolished there would be a disproportionate impact on women, many of whom are employed in the service industries. The big worry is that, without the proper checks and balances, there will be a dramatic increase in the working poor. More families will be subjected to abject poverty and low-paid workers will be forced into competing with one another as they race to the bottom.

The big fear is that the Minister, Deputy Bruton, will ignore the findings of the Duffy-Walsh report and plough ahead to end wage protection for those on low incomes. This is a policy that makes no sense on many different levels. It will greatly reduce people's spending power, with resulting implications for the local economy. It will also force low-paid workers into the social welfare system where they will become more dependent on the State as well as decreasing the country's tax base. It is important to dispel the myth that abolishing JLCs will increase competitiveness. This is simply untrue. The reality is it will result in a race to the bottom with employers being given the freedom to pay wages that are ever more derisory. Most ethical employers will be obliged to follow suit in order to compete. The JLC system not only benefits vulnerable workers but also ensures employers are guarded against unscrupulous business rivals who undercut wages, an action that very quickly leads to an erosion of standards in areas such as catering and the security industries.

Sinn Féin is not against reforming and improving JLCs and REAs but we will not accept vulnerable sections of our society being made to pay for the greed of bankers and developers. Neither will we support changes in employment legislation that will further increase the gap between those who are well paid and low-paid workers who have never had the chance of a decent wage.

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