Pat Breen TD, Minister of State for Employment and Small Business signed an amended Employment Regulation Order for the Contract Cleaning Sector, which provides for three pay increases for contract cleaners.
The Order which amends the one that was in place for the sector since 1st October 2015 provides for a new pay rate of €10.05 to come into effect 55 days from 1st November, 2016. It also provides that from 27th October, the date the Order was signed, deductions/charges for uniforms shall cease for all existing employees and an initial one off charge of €15.00 will apply for new entrants.
Breen said “It will see the pay of the almost 34,000 workers employed in the contract cleaning industry increase. The Contract Cleaning Joint Labour Committee is a good example of how effective the reformed Joint Labour Committee system can be when both parties involved can see a commonality of purpose and outcome.
“I believe that for vulnerable workers, the advantage of Joint Labour Committees is that they see fair terms and conditions such as wage rates, sick pay etc. agreed and given effect by an Employment Regulation Order, while for some employers, the advantage of the system, based as it is on the principle of self-governance, means that they can agree and set minimum pay and conditions, agree on work practices which are custom-made to their industry – a flexibility which cannot be achieved by primary legislation. This process sits very much within the context of Ireland’s voluntarist system of industrial relations’’.
Under the Order, two further pay increases will come into effect on 1st December 2017 and 1st December 2018 when the rates will go up to €10.40 and €10.80 per hour, respectively.