Gap between high and low paid

Madam, – It has been extremely interesting to read in your editions (February 5th 6th) of the massive contrasts between the …

Madam, – It has been extremely interesting to read in your editions (February 5th 6th) of the massive contrasts between the poorly paid workers on the minimum wage or rates covered by joint agreements and those of directors of the companies listed on the Irish Stock Exchange.

Una McCaffrey provides much valuable information to show those of us who are old age pensioners or struggling along on the minimum wage or barely above it (such as catering staff or low paid public servants) how the “other half” live, with the average directors’ pay of €636,000 being nearly 17 times our minimum wage.

Meanwhile, in the UK, the home of neo-liberalism for over 30 years, Laura Slattery informs us that Marc Bolland the designated head of retailer M&S is to receive a remuneration package of €17,000,000. This total package would appear to be some 77 times M&S average pay level, a fact I am sure workers for M&S both in the UK and here must appreciate.

In conjunction with these obscene pay figures here and in the UK, we are told that we must be competitive and that lower rates of pay are necessary for this to happen; frequently by spokespeople for ISME or Ibec who say that wage levels are too high, especially in catering or other low-paid jobs.

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This right-wing ideological attack often is couched in what would appear to be a tone of sweet reasonableness, however Martin Wall’s article (Home News, February 6th) gives the game away. A sum of €2.5 million in unpaid wages was recovered on behalf of workers by the National Employment Rights Authority in respect of workers paid less than their statutory minimum entitlements by their employers.

The headline figure is not really the point, the devil is in the detail. In the catering sector only 21 per cent of employers inspected were compliant with all relevant legislation, in hotels only 27 per cent and 28 per cent in retail and grocery.

These sectors, home-grown mostly, unlike US non-union blow-ins, have traditionally been hard to unionise and consequently have frequently continued to function on the fringes of good practice. As if this was not enough, the number of inspectors is down from 2008 as a result of cutbacks and bans on recruitment, nor is the Government Minister of State for Labour Affairs, Dara Calleary helpful with the promise of drilling down further: what he hopes to find one may only guess.

Serious union organisation and inspections are the only way to ensure compliance with legislation, anything less will continue to maintain shoddy pay and conditions in these sectors. – Yours, etc,

KEITH CARGILL,

Drinagh,

Ennistymon, Co Clare.