The Covid-19 crisis has shown the callousness of many employers. They are refusing to close non-essential jobs; not providing PPE where workers continue to work; refusing to put workers on the income support scheme and instead are laying them off. And now are they beginning to attack pay and conditions and demanding that workers take holidays now.
Unnecessarily, they have put workers’ lives at risk demanding that workers continue to work in jobs that are clearly not essential. The worst example of this was the Construction Industry Federation’s campaign to keep building sites open. The Children’s Hospital site remained open on Monday and was only closed due to pressure from UNITE and PBP-Solidarity TDs. Another example is Bosch and Lomb in Waterford, that make contact lenses. It is still open. Nearly 900 people work there. A worker has posted that the company is “offering overtime…allowing people to cross over shifts increasing the risk of transmission”.
Now employers are going after worker holidays and wages. Disgracefully, large state companies like Dublin Bus and The Dublin Airport Authority are leading the charge demanding that leave be taken now. Not only is this illegal, but it is not acceptable. This is an effort to make workers pay for the crisis. We are also getting reports of companies seeking to cut workers’ pay.
In contrast to the actions of employers, public health is being defended by all those workers who are risking their lives running the health sector and ensuring the functioning of food shops and pharmacies in extreme conditions. If the Covid-19 crisis has shown us anything, it must be that workers who have historically been the poorest paid are in fact the most important workers of all. It has also exposed the paucity of workers’ rights, particularly in relation to issues like sick pay, and the high levels of low pay. Some employers are now moaning that workers who get the €350 emergency payment are getting paid more than when they were at work. Shame on them.
While most workplaces shut to prevent the spread of the virus, health, retail and transport workers bravely continue to work. Shop workers (often without masks or any protective visor around the till) are keeping the supply chain going, literally keeping food on our tables. But these are among the lowest paid.
Tesco agreed to give their workers a 10% bonus from 9 March but this will be reviewed in May. Management in Dunnes Stores also agreed a 10% Covid-19 premium payment backdated to March 9. This followed pressure from a Mandate Trade Union petition signed by more than 3,000 workers. Aldi also agreed the 10% bonus which will stay in effect until the end of April.
These increases are well deserved but these workers deserve more. They should have a Living Wage of €15 an hour. They are risking their health to provide an essential service to us all. We should demand they are given a decent wage and that they keep it into the future. Mandate must resist any attempt to remove bonus payments after the crisis.
The same applies to health. There are many low paid workers such as cleaners and porters working day in and day out to save lives. These workers had to take strike action last year to force the HSE to implement the outcome of a job evaluation which awarded them increases. Like the nurses they had to force the government to recognise their worth. Health workers now deserve hazard pay in acknowledgment of the dangerous conditions they are working in.
The issue of workers’ rights and union membership is now to the fore. Unions must be clear that workers’ safety and rights must not be sacrificed in the current crisis. We know that when it ends the government will try to make workers shoulder the cost. We need to make clear from now on that we will resist any attempt to foist another bout of austerity on workers.
People Before Profit have established a Workers’ Rights Helpline to advise workers in relation Covid-19 issues. It operates from 12pm to 2pm Mon to Fri at 01 2118086. You can also contact us at [email protected]
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