Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

As the Sinn Féin spokesperson on jobs I can say that our party policy is very clear when it comes to economic recovery. Increased employment must mean increased prosperity for all workers. As it stands, we are coming from a low base considering that we have the second highest number of low paid workers in the OECD.

It is not acceptable that almost 400,000 workers, or 30% of the workforce, can now earn a low pay threshold of €12.20 an hour. Sinn Féin wants a fair recovery. That means decent work for decent pay. The bottom line is that work must pay.

In 2015, the Government spent a record €350 million subsidising the income of thousands of families in low paid work.

The problem is that this State money also subsidises the profits of wealthy companies like Tesco and Dunnes Stores. There has been a rapid rise in the number of people in receipt of family income supplement, FIS, almost 60% since 2010, which is topping up the low pay paid by employers. It highlights the extent to which working families are at risk of poverty. Latest projections indicate FIS will be paid to more than 50,000 families in respect of 100,000 children this year. These are working families for whom work does not pay.

The 9% VAT rate applied to the hospitality sector has cost the State €650 million, which is money that could be used to build public housing or invested in our health service. However, by 2014 the total profits in the sector had risen to 36%. In 2007, total hospitality profits were €517 million. By 2014 profits exceeded €700 million. Since the sector hit its trough in 2010 profits have increased more than threefold and there is strong indication that profits are continuing to grow.

Central Statistics Office, CSO, data for the sector only goes back to the first quarter of 2008 but it shows that wages and weekly income in the sector have stagnated despite the recovery in profits and enterprise activity. Between 2008 and 2016 average weekly earnings have fallen from €334 to €321, as weekly working hours have fallen. Profits are more than 40% above their pre-crash levels and yet wages have fallen and precarious work hours have increased.

The 9% VAT rate to the hospitality sector has cost the State €650 million. I repeat that this money could be used to build public housing or invested in our health service. The retail and hospitality sectors have some of the most precarious and exploitative working conditions in the Irish labour market. If the State is to spend public money in this way, it should be conditional on the regulation of the sectors in terms of pay and working conditions and ensure that workers’ rights are respected and protected.

Research by EUROSTAT, the Nevin Economic Research Institute and others show that people on low-hours or temporary contracts are more at risk of being low paid. We also know that precarious working conditions are on the increase across a rising number of sectors, including the Civil Service, nursing and teaching. There is an onus on the State to regulate the labour market and ensure that workers’ rights, in terms of pay and conditions, are protected in law. The idea that the market must be free to compete without undue interference ignores the legitimate voice of workers and their right to be treated with respect and dignity. Free market ideology is anti-trade union and treats workers as autonomous units and not as rational, thinking human beings.

Low pay, precarious working hours and the chipping away of workers’ rights are bad for the economy and bad for society. We could paper the walls of this House with the amount of research reports which consistently show the link between precarious work hours, if-and-when contracts, zero-hour contracts and the growth of inequality. An unregulated labour market is in no-one's interests. It dehumanises workers, puts huge pressure on the State in social transfers, reduces people’s disposable income and impoverishes households and children. This is absolutely unnecessary and serves an employment model whereby employers want to have it both ways. On the one hand, they want to use the full weight of their power and political influence to skew the balance of power in their favour by refusing workers real and meaningful access to collective bargaining while on the other hand, they argue against protective statutory measures around pay and conditions to set basic thresholds of decency.

In this context, the Banded Hours Contract Bill is an important step forward in protecting the rights and dignity of large numbers of vulnerable workers.

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