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By Laura Fitzgerald

THE FOREMOST employers’ organisation in the country, IBEC, is becoming increasingly vocal in its condemnation of the Joint Labour Committee (JLC) system. The JLC system sets minimum pay and conditions in certain industries, including catering, contract cleaning and the hotel sector.

Now is an ideal time to take stock of the battle against the Household Tax in 2012 and learn some of the lessons from this historic struggle.

Attacks on working people are mounting right across Europe. The so-called PIGS (Portugal, Ireland & Italy, Greece, Spain) countries have been to the forefront of these attacks. In Ireland, we have seen €7 billion of cutbacks, seriously damaging public services, including health and education. In Greece, there has been a 10% cut in wages and spending in the public sector, together with an increased retirement age, VAT increases and the freezing of pensions. Portugal has a plan to cut its deficit by €11bn over four years through a crisis tax on wages and cutbacks in public services. The Spanish Parliament has passed cutbacks worth €15bn on top of €50bn already agreed. Italy is due to implement "emergency-cutbacks" of €24 bn.