This article is from page 10 of the 2008-02-12 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 10 JPG
THE Government has been warned that it must examine the workings of the Labour Court and Joint Labour Committees (JLC) or face another legal battle with the Irish Hotels Fed- eel wemDe
The warning, from Lahinch hotel- ier and Chairman of IHF’s Shannon Branch, Michael Vaughan, comes days after his organisation success- fully challenged a JLC ruling requir- ing hoteliers in certain parts of the country, including Clare, to pay 2.5 per cent more than the national mini- mum wage.
Hotels in Dublin, Cork and Dun Laoghaire are exempt from JLC rulings. Had the High Court ruled against the federation some 25,000 employees outside of these areas would have been entitled to higher rates of basic pay.
“We have concerns over the con- stitutionality of the Joint Labour Committees and the Government would want to act quickly to review its position on the Labour Court and the Joint Labour Committees,’ Mr Vaughan said yesterday.
“This was never about the mini- mum wage directly. The Govern- ment brought in the minimum wage
but they never considered what effect that would have on the operations of the Joint Labour Committees.
“There were a lot of problems with the system. If you negotiate in the Joint Labour Committees there is no place for appeals and challenges. The system itself is flawed. I know that a number of sectors, such as the build- ing sector, which are also subject to Joint Labour Committees were look- ing very closely at what was going on last week and we could well see a number of other challenges in the near future,” he said.
It is estimated that some 250,000 workers in other sectors could be af- fected if further legal challenges to JLC rulings occur. In the immediate term, however, the outcome of last week’s High Court case means that the IHF will return to negotiations with the JLC on a proposed 22 cent per hour pay increase last Novem- ber.
“Essentially what this means is that we will be going back to negotia- tions,’ continued Mr Vaughan.
“In terms of hotel workers in Clare, we will be re-entering negotiations over the next couple of weeks and we will be expecting the Government to enter into discussions on the work- ings of the Labour Court. There is a constitutional question to answer but we chose not to go into it on this par- ticular occasion,” he said.