Economic crisis and the restructuring of wage setting mechanisms for vulnerable workers in Ireland Thomas Turner and Michelle O’Sullivan ICTU Women’s Conference 1 st March 2012

Historical context Trade Boards were predecessors to JLCs Designed to protect low paid workers where collective bargaining was inadequate The Industrial Relations Act 1946 –Renamed JLCs –Widened powers

Employees covered by JLCs

First challenge to JLCs Constitutional challenge against Catering JLC from Quick Service Food Alliance 2008 Research on employers’ reasons for legal challenge: –Improved enforcement by NERA –Higher detection of underpayments –Employers critical of overtime pay, particularly Sunday pay

Second emerging challenge Economic crisis Arguments that JLC pay rates were “costing jobs” IMF/EU/ECB bail-out –Commitment to review JLC system –“Need to increase flexibility and facilitate re- adjustment in the labour market”

Paper objectives To examine the structure of earnings & hours of low paid workers –What groups more likely to earn JLC wages? –Examine extent of overtime & shift working –Examine extent of overtime earnings, shift allowances and bonuses to low paid workers –Comparison of low paid and higher paid workers re overtime etc. earnings

Methodology 2007 National Employment Survey (NES) in the private sector Dependent measure is average hourly earnings Approximately 75 per cent of respondents (44,861) in the private sector Grossed up to the employed labour force of approximately 1.7 million employees.

How many employees are low paid? Median hourly earnings €16.29 Low pay work as two thirds of median hourly earnings - €10.86 or less –25% private sector workers (323,912) are low paid JLC range - €8.23 to €9.68

Low pay earnings Low pay in Private sector N% of low pay private sector Less than € %32,6662.5% JLC: €8.23- € %168,09213% €9.69 – € %123,1549.5% 100%323,91225%

Who are JLC workers ? Female –twice as likely –Account for 63% of JLC workers Less educated Part-time –3 times more likely Under 25 years of age –3 times more likely Non-Irish –Twice as likely

Who are JLC workers? Manual or routine service type work –7 times more likely Non-union Low levels of employment service –72% of workers less than 5 yrs Work in the hotels/restaurant and whole/retail sectors

Selected characteristics of workers covered by JLC rates

Distribution of overtime hours, earnings and shift allowance

Working time & earnings Workers who work no overtime and receive no shift allowance or bonuses more likely to be covered by JLC rates Workers who get no shift allowance twice as likely to work shifts.

Conclusion Evidence does not support the argument that extra payments such as Sunday premiums, shift allowance and over-time payments to workers covered by JLCs represent a major cost to employers in general.