Eight days off in new union deal

An extra eight days holiday, time off for training, a new Women at Work Commission to produce proposals on gender wage gaps, ending the casualisation of public sector workforces which was creating a two-tier system, free training for unskilled workers, progressive moves on pension rights and changes to private finance initiative spending decisions.

These were just some of the new deals agreed between the Trade Union Movement in Britain and the Labour Government in a pre-election pact. The agreement was only sealed in the early hours of Monday morning.

As Irish trade unionists begin the processes of voting on the new interim pay deal under the auspices of the Sustaining Progress partnership agreement, how many will cast an eye to the new union government deal hammered out in Britain last weekend and wonder what could be?