Notes on the Front

In a follow-up to it pre-budget submission, UNITE has produced a smaller document – Wages, Labour Rights and Economic Recovery – developing proposals on wages and labour rights.  Though these are not strictly budgetary matters, wages and labour rights impact on economic activity and can, therefore, give a boost to employment and Exchequer revenue which would help the budgetary arithmetic.

UNITE puts forward three proposals:

• Increase the National Minimum Wage to €9.20 per hour:  increasing the minimum wage by 55 cents would bring the value of the wage back to its 2007 level (this is the amount by which it has been cut through inflation). 

• Introduce the right of part-time workers to more hours when they become available in the workplace:  this is a right that was introduced by the EU Directive on Part-time work but it has been reduced to a voluntary code of practice in Irish law.  The most pressing issue for many workers – especially in the low-paid sectors – is not necessarily the hourly wage, but the hours they can work. 

• Introduce the right to collective bargaining:  this has been promised in the Programme for Government but so far there has been little evident progress.

These three modest proposals would begin to lift the floor for all workers but, in particular, tens of thousands of low-paid workers. This is not only economically efficient – with the high marginal propensity to spend among the low-paid, increased earnings will be returned to the economy – it is a social necessity.  The level of deprivation among one-income households has been rising dramatically.  According to the CSO, over 27 percent of one-income households suffer multiple deprivation experiences (in 2011, the last year we have data for).  This deprivation rate has been increasing substantially  – from 17 percent only two years previously.

Deprivation and poverty are a major drain on the Exchequer and the economy – and in the working population, it is centred in one-income and low-paid households.  UNITE's proposals are intended to address this as a part of its larger economic programme to boost employment and recovery, and reducing poverty.

It is a common-sense programme – when you lift the floor, everyone gains.