Some 85 carers at Northside Home Care Services were left out of a pay rise last year because they are not now recognised as Section 39 workers.*
Northside Home Care Services is a charity that delivers home care services to young adults with disabilities and older adults in need of care and support.
They are members of the IWU union. They are being denied the 9.25% increase that 40,000 other Section 39 workers are getting.
For two weeks, at the beginning of January they held mass pickets outside Northside Home Care Services on Bunratty Drive, Coolock. From 7am, through rain and cold, these workers, in the face of management threats and intimidation, stood their ground. As of 26 January, they suspended their strike, but their battle is not over.
On 18 February, they had another strike day and protested outside the Dáil, while People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy raised their case from the floor. Shop steward Sonya Borwick is under no illusion that any reassuring words from Taoiseach Micheál Martin will resolve the issue. As she said, “We will keep asking for and demanding equality until he realises we are in it for the long haul”. This is a bunch of women who are not going to back down.
Refusing them the pay rise they are entitled to is the last straw. Younger care assistants say that they cannot put up with these low wages much longer.
The carers are on far less than the living wage and barely meeting the minimum. Many remain on this extremely low wage for highly demanding, physical work can only increase to €15.04 per hour on completion of FETAC 5. But the company often avoids sending their workers to do this training. The company claims that with travel time added to the basic wage the care assistants earn more. But this is not paid when the care assistants are out sick or on holidays, and so this cannot be counted as part of basic pay.
These workers are very hard pushed on their wages to manage rising prices which has galloped far beyond any wage increases. And paying the rent will become more difficult after the recent DCC rent hikes. Many are parents and the housing crisis means that older children who once could have moved out are still at home putting even more pressure on their households.
Yet their work is a lifeline for any community. The elderly and disabled rely on their vital home support. The care assistants go beyond the call of duty to look after their clients, often buying them extra things, visiting them to see that they are ok even when they are not due that day. This is what community is all about. Their work in a decent inclusive society would be respected and properly rewarded. What is more important than looking after people who cannot look after themselves? Why can't these carers be treated with respect?
Workers are saying they want to see the HSE take over the company and make it a properly funded public sector service for the community.
Support them today.
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*Edited since initial publication.