Ms Esther Lynch:

I am long enough with the ICTU to have worked on the campaign in 1998 to introduce the national minimum wage. In my experience, there is a lot that is the same as when we introduced it. There was so much unemployment at that time that people were very vulnerable. Where an employment right exists that people must turn up to demand, what happens is that people are too scared to do that. A good example of that relates to deductions from wages. The Payment of Wages Act states that the deductions from wages must be fair and reasonable but if someone is a low-paid worker who is afraid of having his or her hours cut back to almost nothing, which an employer can legally do under zero-hours practices, it is very difficult for that person to have the confidence to pitch up a year later with a complaint that there has been an unreasonable deduction from his or her wages for a till shortage. It is difficult for workers to have the confidence to come forward to stand up for their rights. I know there has been quite a lot of comment about where all the cases are. The reason there are so few cases is that workers are very nervous about coming forward, particularly without the involvement of a trade union.

We know from NERA reports that non-compliance comprises more than half of some sectors and could be as high as three-quarters. All sorts of innovations are used, such as people being asked to work for no pay, a week's trial period or the number of hours that count as work shrinking as people are sent from A to B and then to C but the time they are travelling between those places is not counted as working time. There are all sorts of innovations coming forward as ways to undermine the value of or the obligation to pay the national minimum wage.

In response to Deputy Tóibín's question, the Low Pay Commission will make a huge difference. If one puts an extra €2 or €3 per hour into the hands of a low-paid worker, they can do an awful lot with that money so it is worth promoting and encouraging an increase in the national minimum wage.