Mandate Union Seeks Law Change for Retail Workers' Contracts Amid Low Wages

Mandate, a union for retail, bar, and administrative workers, is advocating for legal changes to ensure staff contracts reflect actual hours worked and that additional hours are offered to existing employees before new hires. This initiative addresses the struggle of thousands of retail workers who cannot secure full-time contracts despite regularly working extensive overtime, leading to financial hardship.

Jim Fuery, Mandate's assistant general secretary, highlights that retail workers, including managers, earn an average of €553.08 per week, half the industrial average of €1,074.61 and below the €601 living wage. He attributes this to a three-decade shift in the retail sector from full-time careers to part-time and short-term employment. Seventy-five percent of Mandate members are on part-time contracts, with 40 percent desiring more hours. Current legislation allows workers to request more hours, but employers are not obligated to grant them, often preferring a larger part-time staff for flexibility.

Fuery notes that working beyond contracted hours is common, yet employers avoid regularizing these hours. Union research indicates only a fifth of retail workers earn above the living wage. He stresses that shifting the responsibility from workers requesting more hours to employers being obliged to offer higher contracted hours based on work patterns would significantly benefit low-paid retail workers.

Separately, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) research published Tuesday suggests that even with full-time work, about half of the 74,000 part-time workers at risk of poverty would remain so due to low pay, dependents, or lack of a second earner. Dr. Karina Doorley of ESRI emphasized that while increased hours help some, in-work supports like the working family payment are crucial, noting only half of eligible households claim this entitlement.