Concern that minimum wage will be used to reduce other pay deals
The Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2001, published yesterday, restores the national minimum wage from €7.65 an hour to its previous level of €8.65 from July 1.
Enterprise Minister Richard Bruton announced last April that the Government planned to restore the minimum wage after reaching a revised deal with the EU and IMF.
Head of policy at independent think-tank TASC, Sinéad Pentony, said they welcomed the reinstatement of the minimum wage as long as it was not used as a new pay floor.
“Our concern is that the minimum wage will be used to reduce other wage agreements to the same level.”
The bill also implements two other measures in relation to the recently announced Jobs Initiative.
It provides for the halving of the 8.5% rate of employer PRSI contribution from July 2, which will apply until the end of 2013.
It also introduces measures to facilitate the introduction next month of a National Internship Scheme with participants receiving a €50 per week top-up on their social welfare payments. The scheme provides 5,000 work experience opportunities for job seekers in the private, public or community and voluntary sectors.
Provision is also made in the bill for discontinuing the state pension transition payment from January 1, 2014.
The payment is paid to people aged 65 who have retired from work and have enough social insurance contributions. At age 66, they will transfer to the state pension. Ms Pentony said it was not clear what was going to be put in place for those people forced to retire at age 65 so that they could avoid falling into a poverty trap at the end of their working lives.
“There needs to be some kind of safety net for people, especially for those who cannot rely on a private pension,” she said.
The proposed legislation that will be debated in both Houses of the Oireachtas this month provides for the cancellation and surrender of Public Service Cards where there is evidence that they are being used illegally. It will also be an offence not to return the card without a reasonable excuse when asked to do so.
The bill also transfers the administration of the supplementary welfare allowance scheme from the HSE to the Department of Social Protection.
