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Department of the Taoiseach,
Dublin |
2008/2009 Agreement
Irish National Pay Agreement 2008: Outline agreement
on 6% pay rise over 21 months with a final 1/2% rise
for lower paid workers; 3 month pay pause in private
sector and an 11 month pause in public sector
Most
private sector workers were due increases from
September 1st 2006 under the
2006/2008 agreement and its 27-month period of
application will be up on Nov 30.
So the 2008/2209 deal will begin on Dec 1st
The agreement is a voluntary one and its terms
cannot be forced on employers.
Agreement Report
2006/2008 Agreement
In Mid-June 2006,
Sustaining Progress National
Partnership Social
Partnership Agreement was finalised and has been
called
Toward
2016.
The
agreement has been agreed by the social partners
after almost five months of intensive negotiations.
The
deal provides a 10-year framework to plan social and
infrastructural developments.
Key elements of the social agenda include
linking the lowest social welfare payment to 30% of
average industrial earnings. Other elements include
27,000 additional social housing units within three
years, 500 primary healthcare teams to alleviate
pressure on A&E units and a family carer strategy.
Employers and unions agreed a national
pay agreement delivering wage increases of 10% over
27 months.
The pay deal gives workers a 10 per cent pay
increase, phased in over 27 months:
2% of
basic pay for the next 9 months of the Agreement as
it applies in each particular employment or industry
– except for those employees on an hourly basic rate
of €10.25 per hour or less on
commencement of the second phase where a 2.5%
increase will apply;
2.5%
of basic pay for the next 6 months of the Agreement
as it applies in each particular employment or
industry; and
2.5%
of basic pay for the next 6 months of the Agreement
as it applies in each particular employment or
industry.
Payment dates will
vary for different groups of workers, but the first
instalment in the public sector would come into
effect on July 1st 2006. Most private sector workers
were due increases from September 1st.
The Agreement is voluntary in the private sector
and an employee' right to an earnings review depends
on the terms of employment or whether the practise
has been to make payment adjustments in line with
national agreements.
The national partners have also finalised a series of new
measures to deter abusive employers from exploiting
workers. These include increased penalties for
non-compliance with employment laws including prison
terms and fines of up to €2,500.
Siptu, the State's largest union, voted
overwhelmingly in favour of the agreement, which paved
the way for its formal ratification by the Irish
Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu) on September 5th.
Employers' body IBEC also ratified the agreement on
September 5th.
Toward 2016
Anyone who has a query about the agreement,
should contact the
Labour Relations Commision.
NATIONAL MINIMUM WAGE
The
National Minimum Wage
from July 1, 2007, is
€8.65
per hour.
Monthly Minimum Wage Earnings in EU 27 - 2007: Varies from €92 to €1,570;
Ireland ahead of France but 17% of French workforce at lowest level compared
with 3% in Ireland
Minister for Labour
Affairs Tony Killeen, T.D. on Thursday Nov. 29, received the Labour Court’s
recommendation on the national minimum hourly rate of pay. The Labour Court has
recommended that the minimum hourly rate of pay should be increased to €8.30
per hour with effect from 1 January 2007 and €8.65 with effect from 1 July,
2007.
The proposed increased
amounted to 13% overall and the ESRI have been requested by the Government to
give its views on the proposal.
In their most recent survey on the impact of the
minimum wage, the ESRI estimate that 5.2% (or c. 70,500) of those employed in
private sector non-agricultural firms are earning the minimum wage.
30,000 or 2.2% on
sub-minimum rates
+ 40,500 or 3.00%
on actual minimum
= 70,500 or 5.2% on minimum wage
The percentage of workers on the national minimum
wage has reduced substantially from 21% in 1999 to 5.2% in 2005/6. The total
workforce is
2,073,300.
General
The National Minimum Wage Act 2000 became law on the
1st April 2000. The Act applies to all employees, including full-time,
part-time, temporary and casual employees except the following
categories of employees who are excluded from its provisions:
(i) close relatives of the employer such as a spouse,
father, mother, son, daughter, brother and sister;
(ii) apprentices within the meaning of the Industrial
Training Act 1967 and Labour Services Act 1987 including an apprentice
printer, bricklayer, mechanic, plumber, carpenter/joiner and
electrician.
National Minimum Wage
From 1 February 2004 the national minimum hourly rate
of pay was €7.00. From 1 May 2005 the national minimum hourly rate of pay
was € 7.65.
The above rates were agreed by the social partners in
the National Agreements - the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness
and Sustaining Progress.
Minimum Hourly Rates of Pay
The Act provides that an experienced adult worker must
be paid an average hourly rate of pay that is not less than the
national minimum wage shown above in a pay reference period. A pay
reference period may be a week, a fortnight or no longer than a month.
For the purposes of the Act, an experienced adult worker is an
employee who is not:
(i) under age 18 or
(ii) in the first two years after the date of first
employment over age 18, or
(iii) a trainee undergoing a course that satisfies the
conditions which are set out in S.I. No. 99 of 2000.
The table below illustrates the circumstances where an
employer may pay a lower rate than the national minimum wage rate
shown above.
How to determine an employee’s average hourly rate
of pay
The gross reckonable pay earned by an employee in a
pay reference period is divided by the employee’s working hours in
that pay reference period. The average hourly rate of pay obtained
must be not less than the minimum hourly rate of pay entitlement of
the employee, as detailed in the Table below.
*
Employment experience prior to age 18 is not taken
into account for these rates. The above statutory minimum hourly rates
of pay are gross amounts i.e. before tax/PRSI is deducted.
The minimum rate of pay increases from time to time.
Details of current minimum rates are always available from the
Employment Rights Information Unit or on the Department’s website
www.entemp.ie.
Working Hours
The working hours of an employee for the purposes of
the Act include any overtime hours worked in the pay reference period,
any time spent on standby in the workplace, and any training time
during normal working hours. Working hours for the purposes of the
Act, do not include the time that an employee is absent from work on
annual leave, sick leave, protective leave, adoptive leave, parental
leave, while laid-off, on strike or time for which an employee is paid
in lieu of notice.
Reckonable and Non-Reckonable Pay
Reckonable pay means those payments or benefits in
kind that are allowable in calculating the average hourly rate of pay
of an employee, in order to determine if the employee has been paid
his/her minimum hourly rate of pay entitlement under the Act.
Information on reckonable and non-reckonable pay components is
contained in the Detailed Guide to the National Minimum Wage Act 2000,
which may be obtained from the Employment Rights Information Unit.
Training / Study Criteria
The criteria that a course of training or study must
satisfy for the purposes of the Act, in order for an employer to pay
an employee the trainee rates, are set out in the Detailed Guide to
the National Minimum Wage Act 2000 which is available from the
Employment Rights Information Unit. An employer, even if an employee
changes his/her job, cannot pay an employee the trainee rates a second
time unless the employee undergoes a course of training or study that
is different in purpose or content from the previous training or study
undertaken by the employee.
Complaints
An employee may refer a complaint in relation to
entitlements under the National Minimum Wage Act 2000 to a Rights
Commissioner of the Labour Relations Commission or may instead make
a complaint to the Labour Inspectorate at the Department of
Enterprise, Trade and Employment. It is open to the employee to
choose whichever course of action he/she wishes to pursue but an
employee may not refer a dispute to a Rights Commissioner and also
make a complaint to the Labour Inspectorate in relation to the same
alleged under-payment of the employee’s statutory minimum hourly
rate of pay entitlement. The relevant complaint forms are available
from Employment Rights Information Unit, the Office of the Rights
Commissioner or the Office of the Labour Inspectorate.
An employee cannot refer a dispute to a Rights
Commissioner unless the employee has written to the employer
requesting a written statement of his/her average hourly rate of pay
from the employer, in relation to a specific pay reference period or
periods that are the subject of the dispute, and has either obtained
that statement, or waited for the 4 weeks to elapse during which the
employer is permitted to respond to the employee’s request.
An employee must refer the dispute to a Rights
Commissioner within a period of 6 months from the date the employee
obtained the written statement or, in the case where an employer fails
to supply the written statement, within 6 months from the latest date
the employer was obliged to supply the statement. This time limit may
be extended to 12 months, at the discretion of the Rights
Commissioner.
Records
An employer must keep all records that are necessary
to show whether this Act is being complied with in relation to an
employee, for at least 3 years from the date any record is made. The
records must be kept by the employer at the premises or place where
the employee works, or if the employee works at 2 or more premises or
places, the premises or place from which the activities of the
employee are principally directed or controlled.
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