Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy O’Reilly for the question. I think she knows my strong belief in these orders and support for them. In Ireland, there are three such mechanisms for setting wages in particular sectors, which all include flexibility to take into account the minimum wage conditions in place both now and into the future.

First, an employment regulation order, ERO, sets the minimum rates of pay and conditions for workers in a specified sector. The order is drawn up by a joint labour committee through a process of voluntary collective bargaining. In this case, the worker and employer representatives at the joint labour committee will bargain on the basis of the economic conditions in place for the sector at the time, including the legal minimum wage provisions.

Second, a registered employment agreement, REA, is a collective agreement between a trade union and an employer which covers the pay or employment conditions of specified workers. An REA is registered with the Labour Court and is only binding on the parties that subscribed to it, such as the worker, employer and trade union. As is the case with an ERO, the parties negotiating the agreement will do so on the basis of the specific conditions applicable to them, including minimum wage conditions.

Third, a sectoral employment order is made following a request to the Labour Court to review issues such as the pay, pension or sick pay scheme for workers in a particular sector. The request to the Labour Court can be made separately or jointly by organisations that substantially represent employers or workers, including trade unions. When conducting such an examination, the Labour Court will invite representations to be made to the court from any interested parties. These parties may submit evidence on the impact of the national minimum wage on their sector to the court if they so wish. Under law, the Labour Court must “have regard to the terms of any relevant national agreement relating to pay and conditions for the time being in existence” when making its recommendation.

In each of these cases, we are setting the minimum wage in these sectors. This is the floor and not the ceiling. In many of these sectors, taking construction as an example, where I recently accepted a Labour Court recommendation for a new SEO, this saw the minimum wage in the sector rise to between €19.35 to €21.49 an hour. That is clearly greater than the new minimum wage approved this week of €12.70.

The Government strongly supports Ireland’s industrial relations wage-setting mechanisms. I believe collective bargaining is an important element of ensuring industrial relations stability in Ireland. While minimum wage setting mechanisms should not replace traditional collective bargaining between autonomous employee and employer representatives, they play an important role in strengthening industrial harmony.

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