The employers' group IBEC has told the European Commission that Ireland's existing wage-setting mechanisms need to be abolished and Government proposals do not go far enough.
IBEC Director Brendan McGinty said the country cannot afford what he termed 'legacy arrangements', adding that the UK abolished similar structures as far back as 1993.
Mr McGinty claimed that the current Joint Labour Committee (JLCs) meant that the hospitality sector was paying around 37% more to their employees than their UK counterparts.
He asserted that 4,000 jobs could be created in the restaurant sector alone if the JLC system were abolished.
The IBEC Director argued that anyone suggesting that workers would be seriously disadvantaged as a result of the IBEC proposals was talking 'nonsense'.
He said that from June, Ireland would still have the second highest minimum wage rate in the European Union.
After meeting Commission officials, Mr McGinty said that it was clear Europe wanted labour market reform and rigidities eliminated.
SIPTU Divisional Organiser John King has criticised IBEC's trip to Europe.
He said: 'IBEC should be engaging with the social partners and Irish government rather than travelling to Brussels to ask the EU Commission to intervene in a process in which it has no competence.
'The EU Commission has no authority to dictate to a member state what its wage policy or wage setting mechanisms should be. That is the function of national governments.'
Meanwhile, contract cleaners have protested outside the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation at the proposals to end the premiums.
Dressed in bibs and rubber gloves, the cleaners, many of whom earn €9.50 an hour, say the imposition of the income levy and the universal social charge means they already have barely enough to live on.
Over 23,000 people work in the contract cleaning industry.
