Harney's new threat
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Harney was not alone in wanting to have it both ways this week.
Labour and Fine Gael returned to government displaying remarkably
short memories
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Opportunism, fickleness, short memories and complete madness.
This has been just some of the politics at work in Leinster House
over the last week. However, pride of place must go to Enterprise
and Employment minister Mary Harney who has presented a report to
the coalition cabinet which proposes cutting 8,000 places from
the Community Employment scheme. Only last week Harney had
promised 7,500 new training places would be available from Fás
under the new Employment Action Plan.
What is most strange about the report produced by Deloite and
Touche is that it proposes that the people taken off the CE
schemes would revert to the dole or other schemes. Those who
would be affected most include young lone parents and the
disabled.
Up to this week it seemed fairly clear that Mary Harney wanted to
cut numbers off the dole by any means necessary. This week,
however, a new agenda is at work and saving the Exchequer up to
£44 million is now the goal. But U-turns and reneging on
commitments is nothing new for Minister Harney.
Give us a chance
Hundreds of demonstrators turned out at the Department of
Enterprise and Employment last week to protest against Mary
Harney's Employment Action Plan. ``Mary Harney's threats to
unemployed people are a greater threat to social partnership than
the wage claims of nurses or Garda,'' said Irish National
Organisation of the Unemployed (INOU) National chairperson Barrie
McLatchie.
INOU General Secretary Mike Allen outlined to the protestors the
ways that Mary Harney had undermined the agreed social
partnership approach during her term in office.
Harney had failed to ``appoint a representative of the INOU to new
board of Fás''. She had refused to meet the INOU to discuss or
explain their confusion.
The Employment Action Plan had been introduced with a series of
threats to ``cut people off the dole'' creating a climate of fear
and conflict.
There was no planned implementation of the minimum wage proposals
while at the same time the minister was forcing people to take up
low paid work. Some of the Enterprise and Employment Department's
resources had been reallocated from the long term to short term
unemployed. This was according to Allen a breach of the
commitments in Partnership 2000.
Double Standards
Mary Harney was not alone in wanting to have it both ways this
week. Labour and Fine Gael returned to government displaying
remarkably short memories. When in Government the plight of
farmers and housing was not on the priority list of these
parties. Now in opposition both parties have had a change of
heart and are entering the new term of Leinster House pushing the
social justice agenda they spurned when in government.
Fianna Fáil, though, are not aloof from the dubious political
processes at work in Leinster House. They cannot, it seems, make
up their mind if they are or are not going to participate in the
industrial relations process they have set up and negotiate with
the Irish Nurses Organisation.
None of this bodes well for the next months in Government. It
looks like its going to be a long hard winter.
Couriers with a message
Motorcycle couriers only have status as casual workers without
proper social insurance, sick and holiday pay
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Motorcycle couriers are to write to their employers this week
with the simple request that they sit and negotiate wages and
conditions with their workers.
Up to 700 motorcycle couriers in Dublin have formed a Couriers
Coalition to lobby for a better deal for their members. Couriers
driving in the city work long hours in all weathers and in
conditions that are often dangerous. Over the past five years a
dozen couriers have been killed while many others have been
injured, some paralysed.
Most couriers aross the city are paid a single rate for their
work no matter which company they work for. A lucky minority are
on a basic rate. Couriers are paid £1.40 for the first two miles
of any journey and 25p for every mile thereafter.
These rates have increased by only 22p for the basic rate and 7p
for the extra mileage over the past12 years. These increases are
actually less than the rate of inflation for the same time period
so the motorcycle couriers are actually worse off in real terms
now than they were 12 years ago.
Worse still, most couriers are not actually seen as employees by
the courier companies. Instead, motorcycle couriers only have
status as casual workers without proper social insurance, sick
and holiday pay, as well as pension entitlements.
The couriers have to carry the costs of buying, insuring and
servicing their own bikes. Most do not even have basic facilities
such as a place to have their lunch.
The couriers want the company owners to agree to regonise their
group and negotiate with them on these issues. As one courier
told An Phoblacht, all they want is to be given their human
rights. Has economic life in Dublin got to the stage where even
that is too much to ask for?
Bricklayers union representatives threatened
Two shop stewards of the Building and Allied Trades Union (BATU)
were threatened and ordered to leave work on a building site in
North Dublin this week. The two bricklayers' representatives have
over the past month secured the wages and working conditions of
their fellow workers on the building site.
A BATU representative told An Phoblacht that the shop stewards
had managed to halt the use of sub-contractors hiring workers on
the casual C-45 scheme and paying workers cash-in-hand without
the proper social insurance and tax contributions being paid. The
building workers were all being paid different rates while one
was sacked from his post for refusing to work in conditions too
wet to properly lay blocks.
The bricklayers are all now directly employed by the main site
contractor. This week, however, the two shop stewards were
threatened at the site. They said they were told they would be
shot if they did not cease work.
The BATU official who spoke to An Phoblacht said he deplored the
attempted intimidation of their members and that the union would
not be deflected from working to ensure its workers' rights were
upheld.
Asian flu costs 10 million jobs
One third of the world's workforce is unemployed or
underemployed, according to the International Labour
Organisations (ILO) World Employment Report published last week.
The ILO study also shows that ten million workers have already
lost their jobs in 1998 as a result of the international currency
crises.
The report shows that even though much of the emphasis of media
coverage of the crisis has been on stock market turbulence there
are other more real costs being incurred by families and
communities throughout Asia and now Russia as a result of the
global financial crisis.
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