Thursday 19 November 2020 A Mandate Trade Union delegation comprising of Gerry Light, Mandate General Secretary and three ex-Debenhams shop stewards, Jane Crowe (Henry St, Dublin), Valarie Conlon (Patrick Street, Cork) and Michelle Gavin (Waterford), met this morning with An Taoiseach Micheál Martin and a team of senior officials from his department in an effort to find a solution to the protracted Debenhams dispute. More than 1,000 workers lost their jobs in April of this year as the company entered liquidation. Since then, the workers have been on strike for 224 days. Mandate General Secretary Gerry Light said: “We used […]

Two out of five people in the world do not have a hand washing facility with soap and water on premises.  Almost half of the schools in the world do not have handwashing facilities with soap and water available to students.  We do not know the proportion of health care facilities in the world that have functional hand hygiene facilities with soap and water or hand sanitizer.   ▪ Frequent and proper hand hygiene is one of the most important measures that can be used to prevent infection with the COVID-19 virus ▪ There are two main routes of transmission […]

As the Citizen’s Assembly prepares for sessions on Women in the world of work, we examine some of the issues they will be discussing. https://www.ictu.ie/blog/2020/11/13/women-in-the-world-of-work-citizens-assembly/  

Mandate has today (Friday, 13th November) welcomed the commitment from An Taoiseach Micheál Martin to meet with the Union. The meeting will be an opportunity to resolve the protracted dispute involving 1,000 ex-Debenhams workers and the Union is looking forward to productive engagement between the parties. Debenhams workers have been on strike for 218 days after their employer filed for liquidation during the Covid lockdown. The workers are seeking their agreed collective redundancy package of four weeks pay per year of service. Mandate has informed Debenhams members of this development and has reached out to the Taoiseach’s office to arrange a […]

Monday 2 November 2020 Following an invitation by the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) representatives of Mandate Trade Union and the Debenhams Liquidators (KPMG) met on Friday 30 October 2020 to participate in an ad hoc process aimed at exploring ways which might assist the parties find a mutually acceptable resolution to the Debenhams industrial dispute. Despite best efforts to find a solution to the impasse the WRC talks broke down without agreement. In a letter issued today to An Taoiseach Gerry Light, Mandate General Secretary pointed out the following:  “Union representatives present gave a clear indication they were prepared to […]

From The Morning Star PARDONS for Scottish miners convicted during the great miners’ strike of 1984-85 are a victory won through years of determined campaigning. Former mineworkers, their relatives and trade-union and Labour campaigners such as MSP Neil Findlay can be proud that they have won justice for working-class people fighting for their livelihoods whose reward was brutality and persecution by the British state. And the Scottish government should be congratulated on its ready acceptance of the need for a pardon in line with the recommendation of the independent inquiry led by John Scott QC, to “remove the stigma” from […]

All over the globe courageous workers are standing firm and fighting for what is theirs. We at TULF salute all of the Proletariat globally and may they stand together in solidarity. Meanwhile in the US Iowa Highway Workers go on strike for more on this story click on this link  

Absence of new agreement would create ‘very difficult’ industrial relations environment Fórsa general secretary Kevin Callinan has told members of the union’s Consultative Council today (Thursday) that there is currently no basis for a negotiation with the Government on a new public service pay agreement. The current agreement, the Public Service Stability Agreement (PSSA) expires on 31st December. Kevin addressed the meeting of the union’s branch representatives this morning, and expressed disappointment at the lack of progress made in recent months with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (DPER) despite discussions with the DPER minister, Michael McGrath TD, in July. A scheduled […]

Issued : 20 October 2020 KBC has no regard for proper industrial relation mechanism The refusal of KBC to attend a WRC conciliation meeting with the Financial Services Union (FSU) has being described as disappointing and the actions of a Bank that has no regard for the official industrial relations mechanisms in the Republic of Ireland. This is according to Gareth Murphy, Head of Industrial relations and campaigns with the FSU. The FSU had written to the WRC requesting a conciliation meeting on outstanding issues with KBC on proposed redundancies and the closure of hubs KBC have informed the WRC […]

Save Our Ulster Bank Helpline Issued : 20 October 2020 Concerned about your future in Ulster Bank? Call our Ulster Bank helpline for members this Wednesday, 21 October 12-6pm. Give us a call on our freephone numbers (ROI) 1800 819 191 (NI-GB) 0800 358 0071 or email us at advice@fsunion.org FSU is committed to working to achieve clarity and to save Ulster Bank. Staff and customers deserve a clear statement for their future. Over the last number of weeks, we have been building a coalition of voices to save our Ulster Bank. We now need to escalate our campaign to Save […]