SIPTU wants €11.45p/h minimum wage
SIPTU is to begin a campaign demanding pay rises for workers.
The union's President is calling for increases of 5% as well as a rise in the national minimum wage from €8.65 to €11.45 an hour.
Jack O'Connor says SIPTU is also engaging in a national campaign to apply pressure on the Government to begin abolishing the Universal Social Charge.
He says a new mechanism is required which would raise revenue from the better off, while removing the burden on those earning low to middle incomes.
Mr O’Connor made the call at the commemoration of the death of Jim Larkin in Dublin's Glasnevin Cemetery.
“This is about addressing inequality in our society, it’s about putting money back in people’s pockets, it’s about improving people’s living standards after seven years of misery,” he said.
“But it’s also about providing people with a capacity to spend, so that we can drive up consumption, which accounts for 55% of our economy, or thereabouts.”
Employers’ group IBEC later said that talk of large, widespread pay increases is reckless, foolish and at odds with economic reality.
IBEC said that many companies remain in survival mode and that keeping costs under control is vital to sustaining existing employment and creating new jobs.
CEO of IBEC, Danny McCoy, said that this campaign is not realistic.
“It’s not in touch with reality,” he said.
“In fact, I think it’s going to create an awful lot of noise and uncertainty, particularly for employers who are still in survival mode in many cases.
“What they need now is a stable industrial relations environment.”
