Mandate says co-ordinated action needed from Government to tackle income, flexibility and low skills traps that consign thousands of retail workers to low-paid ‘precarious’ work

The Mandate Trade Union has said that co-ordinated action is needed from Government to tackle the income, flexibility and low skills traps that consign thousands of retail workers to low paid ‘precarious’ work. The call was made as union representatives met members of the Oireachtas in Leinster House in late November to discuss Mandate’s policy proposals, Decent Work? What needs to be done (the document can be accessed at http://issuu.com/mandate/docs/11536_mandate_way_forward_report_interior_a5).

Policy Analyst, Camille Loftus, who developed the policy proposals for Mandate, explained that Behaviour & Attitudes research for Mandate shows that thousands of retail workers are trapped in jobs that don’t allow them to earn a living wage, but at the same time, deny them the opportunity to work a second job or even to qualify for social welfare supports.

“Although these workers find that their working hours have been cut, yet they are still required to work most days, to frequently changing and unpredictable schedules. Most work part-time but most don’t want to – a clear majority of part-time workers want to work full-time hours. When they look for more hours their requests are mostly denied. With no other options, more are turning to social welfare for help, only to find that the system doesn’t cater for the reality of precarious working lives. This leaves around a third borrowing to pay day-to-day expenses and falling behind with bills.”

Camille Loftus said that addressing the growing problem of precarious work requires co-ordinated action to tackle flexibility, income and skills traps in which precarious workers have been caught.

“The flexibility trap occurs where precarious workers don’t get enough hours to earn a living wage, but can’t get another job. This problem is made worse by the structure of the PRSI system which incentivises employers to create precarious part-time jobs rather than full-time jobs. To tackle this, Mandate is proposing that the threshold for the higher rate of Employer’s PRSI be raised to €450 as a short-term measure. In addition, we want to see a revised Code of Practice on Working Hours put in place by Government to help workers access reasonable workers hours.”

Camille Loftus explained that Government also needs to deal with the income traps which mean that precarious and underemployed workers can’t earn enough to make ends meet and can’t qualify for social welfare payments.

“At the moment, when workers have their hours cut, but not the number of days they work, they can’t claim any of the Jobseeker’s payments. The system needs to be reformed so that people can qualify for a Jobseeker’s payment if they experience a minimum 20% loss of employment. In addition, we are looking for a temporary reduction in the number of working hours required to qualify workers for Family Income Supplement (FIS) from 19 to 15 hours per week and the introduction of a refundable tax credit for low paid workers.”

Ms Loftus said that to deal with the low skills trap that confronts many underemployed and precarious workers – which arises due to the fact that these workers need better training opportunities to get better jobs – Mandate is recommending that an effective training support system be put in place these workers.

Decent Work, What needs to be done is available below.