Retailers dubbed the worst employers by ‘lazy’ journalist

Pictured: Dawn Meats Grannagh showcasing a range of Irish beef cuts to visiting South Korean delegation

The CSNA places the €673,295 recovered in unpaid arrears by NERA in its proper context, as less than 0.25% of the total wages inspected within grocery

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Quite a few members took the time to contact our offices regarding a two paragraph piece in the Irish Independent of 12 November headlined “Retailers judged worst employers”. 

In what was obviously a lazy resume of the Quarterly Report from NERA, the journalist chose to view the statistics in a particular fashion. The report suggested that four out of five retail employers have broken the law on workers’ rights, making them “the worst employers in the country”. 

Furthermore, the article reported that a total of €140,868 in unpaid wages was recovered by NERA inspectors after they confronted the “rogue retailers”.  It also claimed that “bosses in the other sectors were much more likely to uphold the law”.
This journalist obviously belongs to the school of “don’t let the facts get in the way of a story”, as if they had taken a little bit of time to research the matter, they would have concluded a very different view of the actual state of affairs.

We have been unhappy with the method used by NERA in compiling their quarterly and annual reports as we believe that they are sparse on detail and allow incorrect assumptions to be drawn from the statistics as presented.

At a recent RGAT JLC meeting, a union official suggested to the chairman that 71% of retailers did not pay the correct rates, basing this outrageous allegation upon a mistaken belief that non compliance equated to incorrect wages being paid. The CSNA advised the union representative, who was sitting on the employees’ side that he was seriously in error, and made NERA aware of the assertion. We requested that they would ensure that such statistics would be properly recorded; unfortunately the most recent (Q3) report has not changed.

It should be noted that the €673,295 recovered in unpaid arrears represents less than 0.25% of the total wages inspected in the Retail Grocery sector – we are not minimising the seriousness of the underpayment of wages, merely placing it in proper context.

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