Gerald Nash (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Breen. In the past two weeks alone, I have been contacted by many security workers from around the country who are not receiving from their employers the hourly rate of pay for the job they do. This practice must stop. As Senators are aware, as part of the most significant enhancement of workers' rights legislation anywhere in the world in recent years, the previous Government re-established a system of joint labour committees. This system was designed to ensure that vulnerable workers in sectors of the economy where pay is low and terms and conditions are at their most basic can have better pay, terms and conditions negotiated in a structured way and where the outcome of any agreement arrived at can be given the force of law. Two such orders, covering the rights of 20,000 security workers, have been signed in less than two years. The employment regulation order signed by the Minister of State, Deputy Breen, on 1 June sees the legal basic hourly rate of pay increase from €10.75 per hour to €11.05 per hour. As part of this agreement, security workers will earn more than what is considered a living wage by 2019, which is very welcome. These are minimum legal rates of pay.

Some security guards are being ripped off and effectively robbed of their legitimate wages. Unscrupulous companies engaged in this practice are breaking the law and must feel the force of the law upon them. Rogue security firms, of which there may be dozens, do not all share the view expressed by the Irish Security Industry Association, which helped negotiate the new legally binding arrangements.On 1 June, its chairman, Alan Durnan, stated that it was a great result for both the employers and employees of the industry and that improved terms and conditions for security officers are critical to attracting and retaining high calibre personnel.

Those who break the law by not paying their staff properly are not only stealing from their staff, but also sticking their two fingers up at the decent businesses in the industry who are compliant and who see their staff as an intrinsic part of the business and not a commodity to be used and abused. I have advised staff who have been affected by this and contacted me to make a formal complaint to the rights commissioners' service as per the legislation. That is what the legislation suggests they do. That is the legal route. However, if a worker or a trade union cannot, for whatever reason, take a case, the legislation governing this area provides the Minister with the opportunity to take a case on behalf of a worker in the event of non-compliance. I think that the Minister should consider this approach because I am seeing considerable non-compliance involving a considerable number of companies throughout the country. Errant security companies are queering the pitch for decent security companies that are prepared to pay the legal minimum rate of pay to security workers. They value those workers and, as I understand it, that is the law of the land.