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Everything and nothing changes: Fast-food employers and the threat to minimum wage regulation in Ireland

Author

Listed:
  • Michelle O’Sullivan

    (University of Limerick, Ireland)

  • Tony Royle

    (National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland)

Abstract

Ireland’s selective system of collective agreed minimum wages has come under significant pressure in recent years. A new fast-food employer body took a constitutional challenge against the system of Joint Labour Committees (JLCs) and this was strengthened by the discourse on the negative effects of minimum wages as Ireland’s economic crisis worsened. Taking a historical institutional approach, the article examines the critical juncture for the JLC system and the factors which led to the subsequent government decision to retain but reform the system. The article argues that the improved enforcement of minimum wages was a key factor in the employers’ push for abolition of the system but that the legacy of a collapsed social partnership system prevented the system’s abolition.

Suggested Citation

  • Michelle O’Sullivan & Tony Royle, 2014. "Everything and nothing changes: Fast-food employers and the threat to minimum wage regulation in Ireland," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 35(1), pages 27-47, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ecoind:v:35:y:2014:i:1:p:27-47
    DOI: 10.1177/0143831X12462490
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Andreas Kornelakis & Horen Voskeritsian, 2018. "Getting together or breaking apart? Trade union strategies, restructuring and contingent workers in Southern Europe," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 39(2), pages 357-375, May.
    2. Michelle O’Sullivan & Thomas Turner & Jonathan Lavelle & Juliet MacMahon & Caroline Murphy & Lorraine Ryan & Patrick Gunnigle & Mike O’Brien, 2020. "The role of the state in shaping zero hours work in an atypical liberal market economy," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 41(3), pages 652-671, August.

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