The next 12 months will be the year of the pay increase, the Minister of State for Business and Employment, Ged Nash has said.
He said 2015 would be a very positive year “and people can expect to see improvements in their income”.
There was an onus on profitable private sector companies where economic recovery had become embedded, and who had not awarded pay rises to their staff over the years, “to engage with their employees to ensure that they can enjoy the fruits of economic recovery”.
Mr Nash also said the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Brendan Howlin, had made clear his intention to talk to trade unions at an appropriate time next year about pay issues, performance and productivity.
Minimum wage review
He pointed out there had not been an increase in real terms in the national minimum wage since 2007, and hinted that this could be raised on foot of a forthcoming review to be carried out by the Government's new Low Pay Commission.
Mr Nash said he had always wanted to see progressive increases to the national minimum wage over time.
“But I have also said that it would only be the case where the economic circumstances allow that to happen, where labour market conditions are right and where there is a social requirement to do so.
“Where all of those circumstances converge – and I think we are potentially at that stage – the climate will be right for the Low Pay Commission to make a recommendation to me about changes to the rate of the national minimum wage.”
A revised system of registered employment agreements which set terms and conditions in particular sectors of the economy – and which fell foul of legal challenges in recent times – would be up and running in the year ahead.
“This will provide a framework for discussions around pay, and terms and conditions, in certain sectors of the economy.”
Asked whether the Government should pay more to its 300,000 employees if it was seeking profitable private sector companies to offer increases, he said “it would be really irresponsible of me to predict the outcome of any engagement that may happen between Government and the public sector unions at this stage”.
Positive messages
“Minister Howlin has been sending positive and constructive messages to those who work in the public service and those who operate public services that he is willing to engage with them and talk about the pay situation in the public service. Clearly the public sector has taken serious pay cuts over the last few years.”
Just as private sector workers would expect to see their salaries increase in a growing economy, “as the economic fortunes of the country improve, as they are [doing], the public sector workers would be looking for improvements in their pay packets over the next period of time”.
Mr Nash acknowledged that the last year had been a difficult one for the Labour Party but said he firmly believed that the Government would run its full term.
“I would be confident that as the economic fortunes of the country continue to improve and people start feeling the benefits of that economic recovery in their pockets, and when they see the sort of social repair work we are seeking to carry out around the provision of public services that were at the receiving end of significant cuts over the years, and how we are working to try improve people’s living and working conditions, I would be hopeful that the Labour Party can benefit from that.”
State of flux
He said he truly believed the current Fine Gael /Labour administration administer could be re-elected. The political system was still in a state of flux, and had not really settled down since 2011.
“People will have a very clear choice to make in the next election. A choice between parties who take the job of government very seriously and who have delivered economic revival for this country; the people who have protected public services; the people who have sought at every stage to protect the most vulnerable, or those who simply make populist choices and do not know how to finance the objectives they say they have.
“Or there is a choice to elect the people who bankrupted the country just a couple of short years ago.
‘Clear choice’
“When people sit down and make the very clear choice, and walk into the local polling station in 2016, that is the clear choice they are going to have.
"I do not believe the people of Ireland, given the sacrifices they have made over recent years, are going to fritter away the economic recovery that is becoming embedded. It is up to us to make sure that people can start to feel the real benefits of economic recovery."
