Ibec moves to explain its position on wage costs 

Maeve McElwee, director of employer relations at Ibec, said she has heard that a “significant uplift in the amount of costs arising from legislative provisions that the Government have given effect to into the course of this year”.

Ibec has moved to explain its position on the minimum wage during an Enterprise Committee, following a row with unions earlier in the week on business costs.

The business representative group said it is not looking for a pause on the current implementation of an increase to the minimum wage, but suggested the establishment of a long-term living wage which will make staffing costs less volatile.

Maeve McElwee, director of employer relations at Ibec, said she has heard that a “significant uplift in the amount of costs arising from legislative provisions that the Government have given effect to into the course of this year”.

“There are serious competitiveness challenges and we are seeing, daily, businesses going out of business,” said Ms McElwee.

Ms McElwee made her comments after the lobby group received backlash from trade union organisation Ictu after it urged government to “pause unco-ordinated and excessive labour cost increases”.

Ibec chief executive Danny McCoy said that while the economy is in a “robust position with sustained growth, costs are rising rapidly, and many businesses are struggling to maintain margins”. He added that the “cost of doing business increased dramatically due to government-imposed labour costs”. 

Controversy has surrounded the recent increase of the national minimum wage as several hospitality businesses have been forced to close their shutters in recent weeks, including well-known Cork-based eatery Nash19 who attributed the business failure to rising costs. 

However, there have been several calls for more protections for workers amid a chronic cost-of-living crisis. Ictu hit back at the comments made by Ibec calling them “unacceptable” and “shameful”. 

The two organisations came head-to-head again at the Enterprise Committee over the regulatory and legislative changes required for the transposition of the EU Minimum Wage Directive.

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Ms McElwee argued that no legislation was needed for the transposition of the directive, which aims to promote collective bargaining, a process that enables negotiations between employers or a number of employer groups with trade unions for agreed outcomes on issues, including staff costs.

The directive aims to reduce strike action and promote organised conversation between workers and employers.

“We can successfully and adequately transpose the directive without any significant need for legislation,” said Ms McElwee. She added that this is possible due to a “robust” Workplace Relations Commission.

However, Ictu general secretary, Owen Reidy, said Ms McElwee’s approach to the directive was too “minimalistic” and that legislative changes are needed to implement the policy change.

He said there is currently no legislation that allows workers to exercise the right to collective bargaining, leading to a system that is “weak and imbalanced”. 

Mr Reidy explained there is “an inbuilt imbalance in government policies” that has created an “impediment for workers accessing collective bargaining” adding that “there is no such impediment for employers in accessing representation”.