“It’s time the government stopped paying lip service to our key workers and instead made sure they are properly valued”
Labour TD Ged Nash has described Government plans to delay a scheduled rise in the legal minimum rate of pay for security personnel to the 1st September as “a slap in the face” for key workers who showed up for duty throughout the pandemic.
“Back in 2015 I brought in a new system of sectoral collective bargaining to allow for better rates of pay and terms and conditions in sectors like security and cleaning” he said.
“Last year the Labour Court, having consulted with workers, their unions and employers proposed that the minimum legal hourly rate of pay would go up from €12.05, then to €12.50 from June of 2022 and €12.90 an hour from 1st June 2023.
“Unions and employers were ready for the €12.05 rate to come in on the 1st June but Fine Gael Minister Damien English has pushed the date out to the 1st September with the spurious excuse that people have to be given time to prepare.
“I have had good employers in the sector contact to me to express their disappointment that the new system has been delayed again. They have been making the back-office preparations for the 1st June only for the Minister to drag his feet.
“This is a real slap in the face for frontline security workers who have kept retail going since March 2020 and who are our supporting our vaccination centres and quarantine hotels in the fight against Covid 19.
“It’s time the government stopped paying lip service to our key workers and instead made sure they are properly valued.”
