Ms Tara Buckley:

RGDATA represents the owners of 4,000 shops, convenience stores, forecourt stores and supermarkets around the country. We are currently updating a 2011 economic study about the independent grocery sector which found that our members were important local employers providing 90,000 jobs in cities, towns and villages throughout the country. I will provide copies of the updated report to the committee members once it is available. The average hourly earnings in our members’ shops is well above the national minimum wage. Our members provide a combination of good skilled full-time jobs including retail management, food service, butchers, bakers, chefs and retail assistants. They also provide part-time jobs and vital first jobs in local communities throughout the country.

Excellent customer service is a cornerstone of the independent grocery sector. Community retailers need motivated, customer focused staff that are happy in their jobs. Part-time staff are extremely important to the grocery and convenience sector. RGDATA members employ many people, such as parents, students and others, who want flexible part-time jobs. Some of these may be categorised as low paid workers as they do a limited number of hours, but many want to work only mornings while their children are at school or for one day at the weekends when they are home from college. Shop owners try to be flexible on rostering part-time staff and our members do not engage in practices such as offering zero-hour contracts. RGDATA members believe that the one practical measure which would assist them in creating new part-time and first time jobs would be the reintroduction of the 4.25% employers’ PRSI rate.

This committee is well aware of the considerable challenges that the retail sector has faced in recent years. The grocery and convenience sector has faced additional challenges, including increased competition from new retail formats and a complete transformation in food shopping habits. Independent retailers have had to cut their costs and up their game to stay in business. They have to provide better service than the multiples, but they must remain competitive with regard to pricing. This is a tough challenge.

During the worst days of the past few years many independent shop owners worked 24/7 to keep their businesses afloat and their staff in jobs, and took no salary from the business. Many invested their pensions and their savings in the business to keep it going. Retail sales may be showing a slight improvement in the main cities, but for many RGDATA members in rural towns and villages business conditions remain extremely challenging. This committee needs to ensure that the Government delivers on its promise to make the tax treatment of self employed people more equitable and fair.

The growth of the discount supermarket format has had a significant direct and negative impact on employment levels in the grocery and convenience retail sector. This is best illustrated by a comment from an RGDATA member who said the biggest competition for her town centre supermarket which employs 90 people is coming from a Lidl outside the town which employs 15 people. The discount grocery model is here to stay and this has significant consequences for jobs in the grocery and convenience sector. It is a low employment format that creates very few new jobs and causes a net reduction in jobs in local shops.

As the low pay commission is already up and running I do not have much to say about this draft legislation, except that the deliberations of the commission must be evidence based and transparent. The retail grocery sector continues to be treated differently from the rest of the retail sector, with a retail grocery and allied trades joint labour committee. RGDATA believes that having a sectoral agreement just for retail grocers is inappropriate and we have consistently argued that it should be scrapped. RGDATA believes that retail grocery employers should be subject to the same employment regulations and national minimum wage conditions as other retail employers.

RGDATA believes that the current contribution of the independent retail sector to employment growth should be recognised and nurtured.