A commitment by Sinn Féin in its General Election manifesto to provide PRSI rebates worth more than €640m to businesses “hardest hit” by national minimum wage increases has been criticised by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu) as “an unacceptable misuse of the money of workers”.
At its manifesto launch on Tuesday the party committed to a range of measures intended to appeal to workers and trade unions including a commitment to legislate for increased collective bargaining, the right to retire at 65 on the State pension and an update to the Unfairs Dismissals Act which it said would include an “effective deterrent” to employers.
The party also followed Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael in committing to a PRSI rebate that Ictu claims would take money out of the fund intended to address greatly increasing future State pension costs.
PRSI contributions are being increased over a period of five years so as to address the cost of maintaining the State pension age at 66 after plans to gradually move it to 68 were shelved by the Government.
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The first increase came into effect on October 1st when employee contributions were increased by 0.1 per cent to 4.1 per cent. Over the next four years they are due to increase in stages to 4.7 per cent, ultimately raising an additional €1.6 billion annually for the Social Insurance Fund. Employer contributions, which are higher, are also increasing by the same percentages.
The parties’ rebate proposal will, however, reduce the impact of the increase, something Ictu has criticised.
“The three big parties are each committed to using workers’ money, their deferred wages, to subsidise the wage bill of low-pay employers through promises of a cut to employer’s PRSI or give a rebate of contributions already paid,” said Ictu’s spokeswoman on social policy, Laura Bambrick.
“Employers in Ireland already pay some of the lowest social insurance contributions in the EU towards their employees’ future State pension and other contributory social welfare benefits.
“Only last month, workers had their PRSI contribution raised to build up the reserves in the Social Insurance Fund to defuse a future pension time bomb. Now, we see that at the same time the average worker will have an extra €353.08 a year in PRSI deducted from their wages by the end of the next term of Government, employers will get their contribution cut or paid back to them in the form of a rebate.
“This is an unacceptable misuse of the money of workers. The Social Insurance Fund is nobody’s election war chest,” she said.
Meanwhile, Sinn Féin’s spokesperson on Enterprise and Employment, Louise O’Reilly, has said Fine Gael’s decision not to increase the number of statutory sick pay-days for workers from five to seven as a “mean spirited” move that “will disproportionately impact workers on a low income”.
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