MEP slams 'greedy' IBEC
Socialist MEP for Dublin, Paul Murphy, has slammed employer’s body IBEC’s call for axing local wage agreements such as the Joint Labour Committees as "a greedy attempt to shore up profits at the expense of workers’ wages."
Mr Murphy made the comment at a protest being organised by the “Living Wage Campaign” at ISMEs AGM and Annual Lunch on Friday in the Burlington Hotel, Dublin.
Mr Murphy said: "I believe IBEC’s call has more to do with maintaining and extending the profits of their members than creating jobs or a sustainable economy. The net effect of scrapping local wage agreements would be to cast tens of thousands of workers into poverty and would actually result in the loss of hundreds of jobs.
"Scrapping JLCs would take tens of millions of euro out of the pockets of already hard pressed workers, who would in turn be forced to spend less, thereby jeopardising thousands of jobs. It is the economics of deflating the economy for the short term gain of employers.
"I am putting Ibec on notice that we will launch the most serious campaign of opposition to any attempt to undermine existing wage agreements and will seek to build a broad alliance of workers, trade unions and the Left to resist these attempts."
