national wage agreement

I have not received any pay rise in 3 years, I am not in a union. where do I stand. the compant I am in are a member of the CFI.

Not a leg to stand on . . .

If you are not a member of a union then you haven't a leg to stand on. "National Wage Agreements" are a big misnomer. Basically they are centrally negotiated colelctive bargaining to prevent strikes in unionised companies. As the sweepstakes used to say, if you are not in, you cannot win. As your company is not unionised, there is no risk of a strike, so they will not follow colelctive bargaining. Most non-unionised companies SAY they set their own rates based on negotiations with individual employees. However the reality is that in these companies pay rates are enforced on the employees, who have little choice but to accept what they get. Your rise may also depend on market conditions and performance management targets.

Be also aware that some unionised companies have not received payrises as the agreements allows companies who cannot afford it to opt out, subject to them making their accounting available to verify this. In reality few companies do this - but some do.

You have two options - either organise a union in your own company (which can be exceptionally difficult as many cos, esp US MNCs are extremely hostile to unions), or leave and join a company that is unionised. As far as I can see pay rates have totally collapsed in many non-union companies, so it might not be unwise to search for a company which listens to the collective voice of its workers. Since most of these companies moved here to run their operations cheapo-cheapo, its likely that many have operated pay freezes, given far lower than average rates, or will pull out of Ireland altogether.

show me the money....

Just to add to the debate, the company I work for were recently brought to the Labour Court on this issue. The LC's recommendation was that the National Wage Agreement was to be paid to the employees and should be considered a minimum entitlement. Our management team have kept this recommendation remarkable quiet. We found out about it only because the LC publish their recommendations on their website. Now my question is this: can we seek to have the recommendation enforced? and if so - how?