Trade unions rally against sectarianism

TRADE unions in the Six Counties held a public rally at Belfast City Hall this week against sectarianism.
This was in solidarity with the family and friends of Kevin McDaid, who was murdered by a loyalist mob in Coleraine, County Derry, last week.
Kevin McDaid had worked to build bridges between the Catholic and Protestant communities.

Assembly wants action on civil servants’ equal pay issue

A MOTION passed by the Assembly calling for a resolution to the equal pay issue for civil servants has been welcomed by Sinn Féin
The motion arose after it emerged that almost 13,000 civil servants, mostly women and Catholics, were entitled to receive payments due to them not being paid equal wages.
Sinn Féin MLA and Finance Committee member Jennifer McCann also welcomed the DUP withdrawal of their amendment to the motion but said there is now an onus to speed up the resolution of the issue.
She said that last year, Peter Robinson – speaking as the Minister for Finance – gave a commitment to ensure that the situation would be resolved and that £100 million would be needed to settle the matter. The current minister, Nigel Dodds, met with the trade union NIPSA and agreed to resolve the issue before Easter. As yet, however, this matter has not been resolved. Jennifer McCann said:
“There is a clear onus on Government and employers to speed up the pace of change and ensure that women get the same money as men for doing equal work.”

Unions reject bank lay-off plans

UNITE and SIPTU have rejected proposals by ACC Bank to lay off all its 660 staff and make them reapply for their old positions, only two-thirds of which will be available.
The workers would only get a redundancy package if their application for their old job was unsuccessful.
The trade unions representing the staff are insisting on the company offering a voluntary redundancy scheme with seven weeks’ pay per year of service. Trade unions believe that the bank could give a generous redundancy package as parent company Rabobank made a €2.8bn profit last year.

RTÉ looks for staff pay cuts

RTÉ is seeking staff pay cuts of up to 12.5% in a series of cost-cutting measures.
Balloting on the proposals amongst the station’s 2,200 staff began last Friday and will continue until the end of next week.
Pay cuts will range between 2% and 12.5% and it is believed that RTÉ are expecting all staff to agree to the cuts as it says this is the equivalent of the payroll cost of 200 full-time positions.

Drivers form Joint Taxi Council

THE four organisations representing taxi drivers have formed a Joint Taxi Council (JTC) to give the industry one united voice.
The decision was made at a meeting of SIPTU, the Irish Taxi Drivers’ Federation, the the National Private Hire and Taxi Association, and the National Taxi Drivers’ Union.
The JTC has called for the resignation of the Taxi Regulator because of what it calls the draconian attitude of the commission and the “total disregard for the effect both economic and social, of decisions being made by the body”.
The JTC has also condemned the Taxi Regulator’s unwillingness to negotiate with taxi drivers and the increase in the SPSV driver’s licence €3 to €250.
The JTC is encouraging all members and taxi drivers concerned about the industry to support a full withdrawal of service on Thursday of this week (4 June).

EU aid sought for Dell workers

TÁNAISTE Mary Coughlan has said the state will apply for EU’s Globalisation Adjustment Fund to support former Dell workers when the number of workers who have been laid off reaches 500.
This EU fund was established in 2006 to finance one-off payments to a large number of employees laid off after their employer moved outside the EU. The rules of the scheme have recently been relaxed as a result of the global financial crisis and Dell’s relocation to Poland (another EU state) will not affect the state’s application for funding.
Tánaiste Mary Coughlan said that workers would not be getting any cash pay-outs themselves and the money would be used for training and retraining purposes.