The Construction Industry Committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions has described today's enactment of a Sectoral Employment Order (SEO) for the sector as a 'significant step for workers in terms of achieving decent work for all employed in construction."
The Sectoral Employment Order sets legally-binding minimum rates of pay and conditions for all grades across the construction sector.
Chair of the Construction Industry Committee, Billy Wall said: 'the enactment of the SEO represents a significant step for construction workers and in our campaign to ensure decent work for all who work in the sector.
'the enactment of the SEO means the sector now enjoys guaranteed minimum standards of pay and conditions, a threshold below which employers cannot legally go. This is something that has been absent since 2013, when the previous agreement was stuck down by the Supreme Court."
Mr Wall paid tribute to the 'tireless and tenacious campaigning of union activists, officials and members in the battle to have the SEO established and enacted, as it represents an important advance."
He said the enactment of the SEO would see an approximate increase of 10% across all grades, on the rates that had applied in 2013.