Restaurants’ pay plea leaves a sour taste

EVERY now and then an individual or an organisation says something that shows them in a poor light that, in the fullness of time, they might come to regret. 

That letting-the-cat-out-of-the-bag statement might show a disregard for the needs of others. It might show a group of employers regard employees as no more than a cost base to be controlled, to be suppressed rather than partners. Unfortunately, the budget pleading from the Restaurants’ Association (RAI) falls into that shabby, revealing category. The RAI asks that the minimum wage — €9.15 — be frozen for five years, a call that must dishearten anyone working in a sector occasionally bordering on the exploitative. RAI also demanded that the preferential Vat rate — 9% — subsidising them stand until 2021. They called for a €1 cut in excise duty on wine and a 15% excise cut on beer and spirits. If granted, only the most naive diner would expect to see lower restaurant bills.

But there is more. The RAI points to “a shortage of 5,000 chefs” because of limited training places and suggests that the Government fill the gap and supply people willing to work in an industry built on low pay and framed in profoundly anti-social, anti-family work schedules. Honestly.

This society is facing growing unrest in the public sector over pay and conditions. Submissions like this, ones that seem utterly detached from reality, suggest that unrest will spread to all sectors. This is a shameful, self-serving plea.