The Minister for Trade, Employment, Business, EU Digital Single Market and Data Protection Pat Breen TD, is in full support of new minimum pay rates being introduced in the construction and electrical contracting sectors. This comes on foot of recommendations made by the Labour Court to the Minister, pursuant to the Industrial Relations (Amendment) Act 2015. As a result, certain construction and electrical contracting workers will see pay increases in October 2019 and 2020, respectively.

They are proposed as follows:

The Minister believes that “[t]hese Orders will protect the working conditions of workers in the construction and electrical contracting sector; will underpin continued good relations between workers and employers in the sectors; and will help maintain the attractiveness of these sectors as career options.” In addition, he felt that “these measures are an important step in securing stability and growth in crucial sectors in our economy”.If this goes ahead construction and electrical workers rates would rise by 2.7% from as early as 1 October 2019. The recommendations also cover provision for unsocial hours payments and sets terms for pension and sick pay schemes.

This will be the second recommendation from the Labour Court in the construction sector and the first in the electrical contractor sector. If these recommendations are approved by both Houses of the Oireachtas then they will be incorporated into law in the form of a Sectoral Employment Order (SEO), as per the Industrial Relations (Amendment) Act 2015.