SIPTU to enter pay talks

SIPTU delegates voted this week to enter talks on a new pay agreement in the 26 Counties.
SIPTU General Secretary Joe O’Flynn said:
“These will probably be the toughest set of negotiations since the current generation of agreements began over 20 years ago. The current economic difficulties are due to factors outside the control of ordinary working people, such as the irresponsible speculation of major financial institutions. It is neither morally nor socially acceptable that ordinary working people be accepted to pick up the tab.”
A representative from SIPTU’s Construction Branch, Paul Hansard, said that conditions on construction sites are now worse than before the agreement came into play.
The key areas that the union has identified for the talks process are pay, pensions, trade union recognition, treatment of agency workers, quality of life issues, accessible and quality healthcare, housing and childcare.
Joe O’Flynn said members want to protect living standards with basic pay increases covering inflation, plus a share in the significant economic growth that has taken place over the past 27 months.
SIPTU Vice-President Brendan Hayes added that the union is “more than a staff association looking out for members’ interests, it is about developing a decent society for all”.

Irish wages below EU average — Unite

THE UNITE trade union launched a report this week that analysed European pay rates and found that  Ireland pays the lowest wages in the private sector across the ten wealthiest states in the EU.
The report was published as part of the run-up to pay talks and shows that Irish wages are 25 per cent less than the average in this ‘peer group’.
Unite Regional Secretary Jimmy Kelly, who addressed this year’s Sinn Féin Ard Fheis, said:
“Ministers and business leaders are fond of telling us we have never had it so good but they are misleading the public. Working people know that and this report paints the truth in stark colours that cannot be ignored.”
Jimmy Kelly also pointed out that every one of the ten European countries that appears above Ireland in the World Economic Forum’s 2007 Competitiveness Rankings has a higher average private sector wage.
“Government ministers are certainly aware of this but if the finger of blame for Ireland’s poor competitiveness needs to be pointed at the real issues, it will land on Government policy and management skills and neither politicians nor business leaders would want to admit to this.”
A copy of the report, The Truth about Irish Wages, is available on the Unite website -http://www.amicustheunion.org

No prosecution for drink-driver on construction site

AN EMPLOYEE of the Healy-Rae plant hire company, owned by Councillor Danny Healy-Rae in Killarney, will not be prosecuted despite failing a drink-driving test on-site after a man was killed by the machine he was driving.
An inquest into the death of foreman Timothy Morley, of Blackwater, Killarney, was told that the driver of the 23-tonne Caterpillar digger machine was found to be over the legal limit on-site and again during a urine test three hours after the accident.
The Health and Safety Authority referred a file to the Director of Public Prosecutions but the DPP decided that no prosecution would be brought against the driver.
A coroner told the inquest that he did not have the authority to explain the decision of the DPP to them. He also stated that the driver, who did not make a statement at the inquest, was now in Australia and it was “unlikely” that he would return.

Psychiatric nurses may strike

PSYCHIATRIC nurses may strike in a fortnight after SIPTU’s Nursing Council said that members voted overwhelmingly in favour of industrial action from 29 April in response to a proposed ‘yellow pack’ compensation scheme offered by the government to psychiatric nurses injured at work.
The scheme proposed would leave those injured receiving 20 per cent less than a claim through the Personal Injuries Assessment Board.