Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I commend the work of the trade union movement and all it does in bringing these agreements and orders into place. A lot goes into the discussion only to have an employer swan into court, who has not been part of the negotiations or any other part, and challenge it.

Recently, a challenge was withdrawn by the security industry. The increase in the minimum wage will bring it to €12.70. The ERO rate for security workers was only going to be €12.90. It was very cheap for them to withdraw that. Unfortunately, that leaves workers in the security industry who have their employment order very close to the minimum wage in a situation where it does not mean that much to them. I am asking that consideration be given to ensuring that when the minimum wage moves, the relativity is maintained. It is easy to talk about sectors where the wage is more than €20 but that is not so for these workers who are sailing very close to the national minimum wage. The relativity that would have been there is now eaten up by the increase in the minimum wage.

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