In addition to likely increased labour costs, textile renters will probably encounter a drive by hotel sector customers to push down laundry costs to offset their own high wage bills.
The legislative process for introducing the national minimum wage has been started, and the introduction of the minimum wage may be in September 1999.
Mr Murray Simpson, chief executive of the Textile Services Association, believes that as wage levels in the laundry industry were structured under a wages council until the early 1990s, the position for the industry will not be as difficult as for some other sectors.
If the minimum wage is set at a “realistic” rate, good textile care employers should not have to meet a too sharp rise in wages costs. The national minimum wage could have substantial impact on low paying employers in the “twilight” part of the industry.
