Restaurant owners: high wages costing jobs

Restaurant owners said today that urgent Government action was needed in order to prevent further job losses in the sector.

It said that restaurant workers were in reality being paid a minimum wage of €9.32 an hour, whereas the norm in other sectors for existing workers was €8.75 an hour.

Restaurant Association of Ireland (RAI) members said they could no longer afford the rate and called on the Joint Labour Committee (JLC) system under which hotel pay rates are set to be abolished.

The system was forcing restaurants, which were struggling to survive and in many cases operating at loss, to pay a premium over and above the national minimum wage, Adrian Cummins, chief executive of the RAI said.

Ireland paid 54% higher than Spain and 23% higher than in the UK.

JL committees are independent bodies made up of equal numbers of employer and worker representatives appointed by the Labour Court, with a chair appointed by the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation

Mr Cummins said the sector which employs 64,000 was being crippled by a series of charges including a ‘sunshine’ tax on sitting outdoors.

The combination of all the charges including water rates, development charges and a grease trap monitoring fee, made this country the most expensive in Europe in which to run a restaurant.

There should be one minimum wage, the group said at its AGM in Dublin.

Article courtesy of the Evening Echo newspaper.