Helpline: RGDATA welcome independent review of retail grocery wage rates
RGDATA, the organisation representing the independent retail grocery sector, has welcomed the establishment of a review into the Joint Labour Committees system for setting the wage rates in the grocery trade.
RGDATA said that this review is long overdue and hoped that it will be concluded quickly.
RGDATA Director General, Tara Buckley said that the JLC structure is inhibiting job retention, damaging the competitiveness of retail shops and will frustrate new job creation. Buckley commented;
“Following the reduction in the national minimum wage, the JLC minimum wage which is mandatory in the grocery sector, is nearly €2 an hour higher than the national minimum wage. The JLC regime has triggered an increase in the national minimum wage for retail grocery workers in Jan 2011 and there is another increase due in June 2011. In the current economic climate these increases are unjustified and unsustainable. Retailers are being inspected by NERA to ensure compliance with new wage rates and retailers fear prosecution if they don’t pay these inflated rates.”
RGDATA said that it would be making a submission to the review group and looked forward to its early report.
