The Irish Hotels Federation has rejected criticisms by Minister for State for Labour Affairs Ged Nash, about its refusal to engage with sectoral wage setting mechanisms designed to protect lower paid workers.
The minister said this was happening at a time when the industry was availing of the preferential 9% VAT rate.
Although he refused to indicate whether the Government would consider withdrawing that measure if the employers maintained their stance on Joint Labour Committees.
In a statement, IHF Chairman Stephen McNally, described the JLC system as an outdated mechanism that introduced needless layers of bureaucracy at the expense of employment creation, as well as counterproductive inefficiencies and rigidities into the Irish labour market.
He said that its reintroduction would jeopardise job creation by imposing additional costs on the sector at a time when payroll was already the largest element of costs for hotels.
He said payroll accounted for 40% of such costs in Ireland, one of the highest levels in Europe.
Mr McNally said JLCs had lost all relevance since the introduction of the National Minimum Wage Act, as will as 40 other pieces of extensive employment legislation.
He said that since 2011, when JLCs were found to be unconstitutional, tourism businesses had seen a significant reduction in red tape, enabling members to create over 23,000 new jobs in food and accommodation businesses.
IBEC Director of Industrial Relations Maeve McElwee said it was simplistic to suggest hotel employers had engaged in a boycott.
She said they had a legitimate issue in challenging the JLC system.
She said the fact that they had not engaged in a JLC did not mean that decent terms and conditions did not apply in the sector.
However, the country's largest trade union SIPTU backed today's criticisms by Minister Nash.
Services Division Organiser, John King said SIPTU had repeatedly urged the Government to remove the effective veto this employers' group had over a system which merely aimed to ensure that workers received a fair day's pay for a fair day's work.
He accused the hotel employers of subverting Government policy, and urged the Government to ensure its policy commitments to workers were delivered upon.
Mr King said it was unacceptable that employers who were benefiting from a reduced VAT rate for their industry and hundreds of millions of taxpayers money spent on promoting it could then cherry pick what other aspects of Government policy they wish to adhere to.
Also today, Minister Nash indicated that he expects the Low Pay Commission to hold its first meeting before the end of the month, and to issue its first report on a potential increase in the national minimum wage by the end of the summer Dáil session.
He said whatever recommendations emerged could be legislated for shortly after that.
