€1m recovered for workers on less than minimum wage

More than €1m has been recovered this year from employers paying workers less than the minimum wage, Enterprise Minister Micheal Martin said today.

The minister was defending himself against Opposition claims that he was “sleeping on the job” of protecting Irish employees from rogue bosses.

Labour Party enterprise spokesman Ruairi Quinn branded the Government a disgrace for not having prosecuted a single employer over the last two years for failure to pay the minimum wage.

Mr Martin said officials have carried out thousands of workplace inspections already this year to ensure compliance with the law.

“This year to date we now have up to 12,678 inspections generally in relation to employment rights law. We’ve had 2,818 inspections in relation to the minimum wage,” he said.

“Last year, in terms of inspections for the minimum wage we had only 481 – so we have had six times more inspections in 2006 than we had in 2005.

“In 2004 we would have recovered about €300,000 for workers, last year it was about €500,000 recovered for workers, this year it’s over a €1m recovered for workers.”

The minister said he had nearly doubled the number of minimum wage inspectors from 17 to 31 during his time in charge of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment.

That number will increase again to 90 in the next couple of months, while recruitment has begun for five senior posts in a new office of the Director of Employment Rights Compliance, he added.

“The best route for the worker and the shortest route is the recovery of the money,” the minister insisted.

“In a situation where there is continuous repeated abuses of the law further sanctions can then be pursued. But it’s agreed generally that the best approach is to seek compliance and win compliance,” he told RTE radio.

But former Labour leader Mr Quinn said the measures outlined by the minister were too little, too late.

“Rogue employers are not being fined and prosecuted and not being made an example of. That sends a very bad signal and a very unfair signal to the vast majority of employers who are compliant,” he said.

It was unfair that employers working within the legislation can be undercut by those flouting the laws and using cheap labour, he said.