Mr. Liam Berney:

A better approach would be to have sectorial wage-making mechanisms generally available in the economy, like joint labour committees. If there was a joint labour committee in the meat processing sector, it would involve wages being made through a process of negotiation between employers and unions.

Wage levels, once approved by the Labour Court and the Oireachtas, would become the minimum wages in the sector. The difficulty with the joint labour committee, JLC, system is that, as my colleagues in IBEC are aware, employers refused to attend or participate in them. The structure has collapsed because of that.

Colleagues from IBEC referenced the fact that they have suddenly seen the light and accepted that collectivism is the way forward. It is to be hoped that over the coming period in discussions in the labour economic forum, ideas around collectivism, increased collective bargaining coverage and sectoral wage-making mechanisms like JLCs can become more common and employers will stop refusing to participate in them. That could raise wage levels in the sectors we are discussing.

Migrant workers who come here because their minimum rates of pay are legally enforceable will be entitled to those rates. Crucially, they will only be entitled to them if employers know that if they do not pay them, they will be caught not doing so. Increasing the number of inspectors in the WRC is crucial to all of this, as is including increasing collective bargaining coverage and making it easier for trade unions to do their work. This is an important suite of measures that need to be adopted.

All of these problems can be resolved but there needs to be a change in approach in the employer class.