/sites/default/files/upload/spectrum_week_3_may_23_new.pdfHOTELS CHIEF CONDEMNS GOVERNMENT DECISION TO REINTRODUCE JOINT LABOUR COMMITTEES

• Reintroduction of JLCs hinders ability to take on additional staff
• Decision runs contrary to Government’s stated employment creation agenda
• Coherent approach to job creation in hotels sector required

The Irish Hotels Federation (IHF) today condemned the reintroduction by Minister Richard Bruton of the Hotels Joint Labour Committee system (JLCs). Michael Vaughan, President of the IHF stated that the decision, which affects hotels operating outside of Dublin and Cork, will impose outdated wage-setting mechanisms and additional layers of bureaucracy on hotels at the expense of job creation in the sector.

“This barrier to job creation places an unjustifiable burden on hotels – the very businesses that should be supported as sources of growth in employment,” says Mr Vaughan. “We need an environment that safeguards the 54,000 employees in hotels and guesthouses but most importantly allows for further job creation.”

“JLCs make no sense for our country and are neither appropriate nor fit for purpose in a modern competitive economy. They have lost all relevance with the introduction of the National Minimum Wage Act and over 40 other separate pieces of extensive employment legislation including the Working Time Directive.”

“As it stands, payroll is already the largest element of costs within the hotels sector, accounting for in excess of 40% relative to turnover following significant increases over the last decade. This puts hotels and guesthouses at a serious competitive disadvantage compared to our biggest competitors such as Northern Ireland and Britain, where average payroll costs are significantly lower.”

The IHF maintains that radical changes to Ireland’s economic and regulatory environment over the past century have made the Joint Labour Committee (JLC) system obsolete, particularly in light of the National Minimum Wage Act 2000, which has provided Ireland with one of the highest gross minimum wage rates in Europe.  The IHF welcomed the High Court decision in 2011 which abolished the JLC system of setting statutory minimum wages at levels higher than the National Minimum Wage.

ENDS

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