Mr. Gerry Light:

Maybe because of our past, I would suggest that pay increase came about for the many thousands who worked in Superquinn at that time as a result of our engaging in a very constructive collective bargaining environment. With the greatest respect, I think the Senator’s proposal to us today is utopian in the extreme.

I refer to it in our submission. It suggests that a job at any cost strategy is the way to go. Surely we have to have regard to the quality of the employment we are creating. The number one consideration must be that in an effort to take people off social welfare and put them back into work, we do not worsen their lot. That can happen if we have little or no regard for the quality of employment. Work must pay and must be seen to pay.

I will refer to an entity outside of the jurisdiction. The Chairman can pull me up on that but Senator Quinn named it and he was not pulled up. I refer to Walmart. As a result of the pressures in recent years and the general thrust generated by society for fairness and decency, it has done what it did last week. I could not believe what happened and I wiped my eyes when I read the article. For many years the labour unions in America have been following the company and attempting to get it to do the right thing, at significant expense to them. There is now a chink of light at the end of the tunnel as a result of the lobbying that was carried out in respect of campaigns around decency and fairness.

I will make a final point. We have not come before the committee to look for a pay increase on behalf of our members. This is a societal issue. We are proposing a pay increase which will be applied to all workers who find themselves in part-time, low-paid and precarious work. We are trying to do the right thing for them. We are prepared to engage with the relevant employers that do business with us and allow us, as much as they will allow, to make the case for it.

I have said on a number of occasions that if we fail to agree, we will go to the Labour Court and let it make the decision. That is crucially important. This issue is broader than the trade unions. It is about the society we are looking to build as we emerge slowly from the years of doom and gloom into a better place for all of our citizens, not just those who are employed but for everybody.