David Cullinane (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 12:

In page 5, between lines 25 and 26, to insert the following:“(4A) The Commission shall monitor the incidence of low pay by examining the prevalence of pay two-thirds or below of median earnings in the current period in each sector of the economy, and report its recommendations to reduce the percentage of employees in each sector who earn below two-thirds of the hourly median wage over the following 3 year period.

(4B) The Commission shall examine and report on key patterns in paid and unpaid open market internships providing a regulatory framework for internships and to support professional associations to promote ethical internship programmes.

(4C) The Commission shall examine and report on the effectiveness of existing policies to enforce the National Minimum Wage and make recommendations for improvement of compliance and enforcement.”.

I will speak first on amendment No. 12 and then deal with amendments Nos. 13 and 14. On amendment No. 12, if we were to follow the logic of what the Minister of State has been saying up to now, namely, that the Low Pay Commission does not simply have to look at the national minimum wage, it could and should look at other issues in regard to low pay. What we have tried to do here is to be very clear in terms of the role, purpose and intent of the Low Pay Commission.

I will go through each of the provisions. The amendment states: “The Commission shall monitor the incidence of low pay by examining the prevalence of pay two-thirds or below of median earnings in the current period in each sector of the economy." We must remember this is the basis on which EUROSTAT, the OECD, TASC and others have calculated high levels of low pay. The amendment also states that the commission will “report its recommendations to reduce the percentage of employees in each sector who earn below two-thirds of the hourly median wage over the following 3 year period”. Again, this means it will publish a report on its recommendations on how we deal with low pay, not just the minimum wage. That is what the first element of the amendment seeks to achieve. Perhaps the Minister of State can explain to me how the commission is going to do that and what provisions in the existing Bill would compel the commission to do what we are clearly seeking it to be able to do in that part of the amendment.

The next subsection states: “The Commission shall examine and report on key patterns in paid and unpaid open market internships providing a regulatory framework for internships and to support professional associations to promote ethical internship programmes.” This is obviously in the context of labour activation schemes so the Low Pay Commission could also look at this area and make recommendations.

The final subsection states: “The Commission shall examine and report on the effectiveness of existing policies to enforce the National Minimum Wage and make recommendations for improvement of compliance and enforcement.” In any aspect of employment law, we can put something in place but enforcement and compliance is very important. Again, the importance of this subsection is to ensure the commission can look at what enforcement or compliance elements are in place and whether they need to be strengthened, and then report on that.

I thank the Minister of State for bringing forward Government amendment No. 13. On that basis, I will withdraw amendment No. 14 because, essentially, it does the same thing, except it puts a three month timeframe on it, which is reasonable. It is important that not just any report is put before the House but that we have ongoing discussions which give us an opportunity to learn what the Low Pay Commission is doing. Maybe the Minister of State is right and I am wrong in this regard, but this would give us an opportunity to evaluate that. It would be a useful exercise for us to have an ongoing debate in both Houses of the Oireachtas about the work of the Low Pay Commission, which will be a very important tool and structure for all of us in regard to low pay.

Therefore, I will be withdrawing amendment No. 14 in support of the Government amendment No. 13. I believe the other amendments are technical Government amendments.