Enforcing the minimum wage

UNION representatives have called for greater resources to be given to enforcers of the minimum wage in advance of a 6% increase due to apply from October. The minimum wage was first introduced in April 2000 as part of the PPF and the latest increase to 6.35 per hour, flagged over two years ago, will come into effect on October 1.

So far just three cases have been heard before the courts of employers who were paying less than the minimum wage and in each case, the employer pleaded guilty and had to pay arrears and fines ranging from £100 to £500. Liam Berney, industrial officer of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) said the unions welcomed the increase but said more efforts had to made to ensure employers were complying with the legislation.

“We are absolutely convinced that there are some employers who don’t pay the minimum wage and it is absolutely necessary that the agency that is enforcing this legislation needs more significant resources in order to ensure minimum wage is implemented.”

The Labour Inspectorate within the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment is the government division charged with enforcing the minimum wage. It has 17 inspectors to cover the entire country and a spokesman admitted that much of the time was spent in the office on administration rather than around the country visiting workplaces. It is in the process of putting more systems in place to gather and analyse data which will free up time for the inspectors.

While the unions view the implementation of the minimum wage as an necessity to prevent exploitation in some sectors, some employers are less in favour of the minimum rate.

Pat Delaney, director of the Small firms Association said it has always been “trenchantly opposed” to the introduction of a minimum wage. “We’re not opposed to a high-skilled, high earning economy. It represents a further cost increase in business without a subsequent increase in output.”