Student nurses and midwives have decided that they will engage with government-proposed, independently verified reviews of their remuneration and conditions.
The reviews – details of which were finalised this morning – were offered by the Minister for Health in response to an ongoing campaign. There are two reviews proposed.
The first review will focus on the immediate short term. It will report back to the Minister for Health in December, for implementation in January.
The second will look at longer-term issues beyond the pandemic. It will be held in January and February, with a view to implementation in the next academic year, starting September 2021.
Feedback from student INMO members was cautiously in favour of “guarded engagement” with the independent reviews. The INMO and students say they will feed into the review and reserve a final judgement until the outcomes are published.
Education expert Professor Tom Collins has been agreed as an independent chair for the first, short-term review.
INMO General Secretary, Phil Ní Sheaghdha, said:
“Student nurses and midwives are doing incredible work on the frontlines during this pandemic. They clearly have overwhelming public support.
“Over 70,000 people have pledged their support to students via a petition. It is clear that the public understand that valuing our student nurses and midwives means fair payments and conditions when working in the frontline during a pandemic.
“Our student members have rightly given a cautious response to the Minister’s proposed reviews. The rapid timeline for implementation is very welcome, but ultimately the reviews’ actual proposals will determine our student members’ response.”
December 17th, 2020by TU Left Admin | Type: Standard
Nine couriers have died this year as Covid demands and poor protections take their toll
At a logistics depot the size of an aeroplane hangar in southern Seoul, couriers recently held a ritual at the start of another gruelling work day: They stood for a moment of silence to remember more than a dozen fellow couriers who they say died this year from overwork.
“We won’t be surprised here if one of us drops dead, too,” said Choi Ji-na, one of the couriers.
Choi (43) and other delivery workers in South Korea say that they feel lucky to have jobs amid growing unemployment, and that they are proud to play an essential role in keeping the country’s Covid-19 cases down by delivering record numbers of packages to customers who prefer to stay safe at home.
But they are also paying a price. The string of deaths among couriers this year has caused a national uproar, drawing attention to worker protections that are unevenly distributed in a place that once had one of the longest work weeks in the world.
Packages are expected to arrive with “bullet speed”, but the uninsured workers delivering them say that it is becoming impossible to keep up with the demand, and that labour rule changes made by President Moon Jae-in have left them out in the cold.
There have been 15 deaths among couriers so far, including some who died after complaining of unbearable workloads that kept them on the clock from dawn until past midnight. The delivery workers say they’re dying of “gwarosa”, or death by overwork.
“The workload has become just too much,” Choi said. “Since the coronavirus came, going home early enough to have dinner with my children has become a distant dream.”
Least protected
Couriers are some of the hardest-working, least protected workers in South Korea. Between 2015 and 2019, only one to four couriers died per year. This year, nine couriers died in the first half of the year alone, according to data that the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency submitted to the lawmaker Yong Hye-in.
When Moon slashed the maximum work week to 52 hours from 68 in 2018 to ensure a “work-life balance” and a “right to rest”, couriers were left out of the deal. As the pandemic rages on and packages pile up, couriers say they are not only facing longer hours but also an ever-present fear that they will succumb to the mounting volume of work.
Couriers check delivery addresses at a distribution centre in Seoul. Photograph: Woohae Cho/The New York Times
Online orders have surged around the world, and demand for delivered goods in South Korea has grown by 30 per cent, to 3.6 billion parcels this year, according to some estimates. Most deliveries in South Korea are handled by large logistics companies.
Those firms outsource the labour to couriers, who are independent subcontractors working on commission using their own trucks in assigned areas. Since 1997, as e-commerce as boomed and competition has intensified, online shipping costs in the country have dropped by more than half.
Some residents who fear infection have refused to share lifts with delivery workers, forcing them to haul packages up stairs.
Shopping malls and logistics firms now promise even faster deliveries, offering “within-the-day”, “before-dawn” and “bullet-speed” options. But the fees collected by couriers have dropped. Workers now receive between 60 and 80 cents per parcel and have been slapped with penalties when they fail to meet delivery deadlines set by major online shopping retailers.
‘Just too tired’
One courier in Seoul, Kim Dong-hee, returned home at 2am on October 7th. Later that day, he returned to the warehouse to pick up 420 packages. He still had many deliveries to make when he texted a colleague at 4.28am the next day. He said he would be home by 5am but would barely have time to eat and wash up before heading out again.
“I am just too tired,” he wrote.
Four days later, he didn’t show up for work. When colleagues checked his home, they found him dead; police ruled that heart failure was the cause.
Colleagues say he was killed by overwork. He was 36. The day that Kim sent his message, another man in Seoul, Kim Won-jong, collapsed on his delivery route, complaining of chest pain and difficulty breathing before he died.
“I remember how tired he looked late in the evening, his shoulders slumped and his cap pulled low, as if he were semiconscious,” a customer who knew Kim wrote online after his death made news.
It has become common to see weary couriers weaving through apartment compounds in the dead of night, delivering fruit, bottled water, Christmas decorations and other items that many shoppers now prefer to have delivered. Some residents who fear infection have refused to share lifts with delivery workers, forcing them to haul packages up stairs.
Park Ki-Ryeon delivers bags of rice to customers in Seongnam, a city on the outskirts of Seoul. Photograph: Woohae Cho/The New York Times
The pandemic has brought profits to couriers and logistics companies like CJ Logistics, Hanjin Shipping and Lotte. But categorised as self-employed, most of the country’s estimated 54,000 “taekbae gisa”, or home-delivery drivers, do not benefit from the labour laws that protect full-time corporate employees. Benefits such as overtime, paid leave and insurance against on-the-job injuries are largely unavailable.
Couriers have been known to injure their ankles or become the subject of police calls made by neighbours who mistake them for burglars.
According to a September survey by the Center for Workers’ Health and Safety, a rights group, couriers work an average of 12 hours a day, six days a week. According to government data submitted to lawmakers, work-related injuries for couriers soared by 43 per cent in the first half of the year.
‘Life with evenings’
Couriers in the United States, Europe and China have gone on strike seeking better protections. In South Korea, they have staged strikes hoping to secure shorter hours and a “life with evenings”.
“We organised and fought back because we had no one to talk to,” said Park Ki-ryeon (36), a courier since 2016.
“We, too would like to keep warm indoors, like the people we serve,” Park said. “But many of us are not well educated and started this work with debts to pay. If we quit, we don’t have an alternative.”
Choi became a delivery worker seven years ago after a divorce made her a single mother of two young children. She has hauled packages weighing up to 25kg apiece up and down stairs. She sometimes has to climb walls to make deliveries, because homeowners are out, with their gates locked, but want the parcels left inside.
Couriers have been known to injure their ankles or become the subject of police calls made by neighbours who mistake them for burglars.
She said she liked the work because she could get home in time for her children to return from school, but the virus changed everything. Choi now delivers up to 370 parcels a day, 30 per cent more than before the pandemic. She starts work at 6.30am and rarely gets home before 10pm.
At the depot, container trucks rumbled in under the pre-dawn sky, bringing cargo from across South Korea. As what seemed like an endless stream of parcels of all shapes and sizes were unloaded, Choi and her colleagues gathered around a conveyor belt to search for packages with addresses in their districts.
The deliveries would stretch well into the night.
Apologies
Some logistics companies have apologised for the recent spate of deaths and promised to provide benefits, like medical check-ups, and add more workers in phases to help shorten work hours and manage the increased volume.
Moon’s government has vowed to introduce a five-day work week and ban night-time deliveries, admitting that his policies have not kept up with the growth of the delivery industry and that “the burden was concentrated in long hours and heavy workloads for couriers”.
After the deaths generated headlines, people also began expressing sympathy for the couriers, leaving drinks and snacks at the door with notes saying, “It’s okay to be late.”
“When strangers pass me on the streets, they say to me, ‘Please don’t die! We need you,’” Park said. But the reforms promised by logistics companies and the government have been too slow to arrive.
When his grandmother died last month, Park said, he had to hire a replacement courier with his own money to deliver the parcels along his route just so he could take a half day off to mourn her.
“We want change,” he said. “We are not working machines.” – New York Times
The Executive Board of Education International has adopted a resolution condemning the human rights violations in Colombia that have led to thousands of deaths of trade unionists.
The decade-long attacks on human rights and the lives of more than a thousand unionists and social activists were at the core of a resolution adopted today, 9 December, by the Executive Board of Education International, which is meeting for the 56th time.
Read More
The attempts of groups controlling power in Colombia to wipe out social organisation and mobilisation, quell protests, and suppress the right to organise and proclaim the validity of the public education system has led to thousands of casualties, many of them educators who were actively engaged with their unions. Since 1986, more than 1,100 teachers have been assassinated during the armed conflict, according to the Colombian Federation of Educators (FECODE), a member organisation of Education International. According to the Institute for Development and Peace Studies (Indepaz) in Bogota, more than 280 social leaders have been assassinated in Colombia in 2020.
Ongoing violence
Despite the signing of a peace agreement in 2016 between the government of Colombia and the guerrillas, violence has been ongoing. The conflict has taken the form of a territorial dispute that has led to the persecution and stigmatisation of activists, without the government taking measures to protect their lives and guarantee their safety and the free exercise of their right to organise and disagree.
Educators, as well as social leaders, have been assassinated solely for raising their voices to defend their rights and the validity of the public education system. Every time the Executive Committee of Education International’s member organisations in Colombia – FECODE and the Trade Union Association of University Professors (ASPU) – announce a mobilisation for the defence of rights, threats are issued to the lives of the members of their national or regional executive committees.
Government inaction
According to the Education International Executive Board, the Colombian President, Iván Duque Márquez, has kept a “a complicit silence” in the face of thousands of threats against FECODE and ASPU and the teaching profession. He has done this by removing or denying security measures for union leaders and social leaders, while allowing the party in government to attack the freedom of association and academic freedom that are guaranteed in the Constitution.
International solidarity campaign
A significant campaign of international solidarity has been waged in the face of these threats. More than 60 Education International members have already asked the Colombian authorities to protect union leaders and members.
Education International has called on its member organisations to strengthen their demands that the Government guarantees human rights and the right of trade unions and of the teaching profession to work freely in Colombia.
SIPTU representatives have today (Thursday, 10th December) confirmed that unions have made a significant breakthrough on pay restoration for members in 250 State-funded voluntary health and social service providers. The positive development for workers in these Section 39 employments follows a conciliation conference held under the auspices of the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC).
SIPTU Divisional Organiser, Adrian Kane, said: “This interim settlement is well overdue but it delivers money into the pockets of our members’ pockets from next month and that is critically important. The issue of parity of treatment with colleagues in the larger section 39 employments hasn’t gone away and when the parties reconvene again at the WRC in 2021, SIPTU representatives will be fighting to ensure that all monies outstanding for our members are paid in full.”
The union negotiating committee is now recommending that planned industrial action by members of SIPTU and Fórsa in Cork and Kerry next week be suspended on foot of an agreement between the group of unions and the HSE for two phases of pay restoration to be implemented next year.
The first of these payments is due to take effect from 1st January 2021 and will deliver up to €1000 of an annual increase in salary which will be paid that month. A second instalment, equating to 50% of the outstanding restoration due, will take effect from 31st May 2021 and will be paid in June 2021.
The parties will convene again at the WRC at the beginning of the second quarter of 2021 to discuss the date of application of the final phase of pay restoration and a union claim for retrospective payments.
Fórsa official, Catherine Keogh, said: “This has been an exceptionally challenging year for these workers. Our one-day strike took place on 14th February, which was just a few weeks before the Covid-19 crisis hit and these are the workers whose professionalism and experience was called upon like never before in response to that crisis. This is a welcome breakthrough, and some good news at the end of a long and very difficult year for them.”
The Irish Congress of Trade Unions is to write to the Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly, and request that membership of the Dialogue Forum with Voluntary Bodies be increased to include union representatives. The trade unions have argued that this forum can contribute to the resolution of the long-term structural issues in the sector and their inclusion is consistent with the commitments in the Programme for Government to wider and deeper social dialogue.
Housing in Ireland needs to be viewed as a right and not a commodity, according to the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission.
A national survey carried out by the IHREC suggested that 82% of people in Ireland consider housing to be a basic human right.
The survey was carried out to mark Human Rights Day which is celebrated on 10 December annually.
On this day in 1948, the UN adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The declaration consists of 30 articles detailing an individual’s “basic rights and fundamental freedoms” and is considered a foundational text in the history of human and civil rights.
The theme of Human Rights Day 2020 is “Recover Better”.
It is focused on ensuring that recovery from Covid-19 focuses on combating inequality and advancing human rights.
A survey by Amárach on behalf of the IHREC sought the views of 1,200 people on human rights.
Asked if they believe human rights are important for creating a fairer society, the study reported almost 100% agreement from respondents.
Almost eight out of ten (79%) support Ireland’s equality law changing to allow protection to people against discrimination due to status such as family background, home address, educational background or economic situation.
When asked about housing, 82% of those surveyed considered it to be a basic human right, which is the same figure as a 2018 poll that posed the same question.
Almost two thirds (64%) of people believe that the right to housing should be enshrined in the Constitution while 24% were against that proposal.
The IHREC Chief Commissioner said the survey showed that people are consistently looking at housing and accommodation as an area where a rights-based approach should be taken by the State.
Sinéad Gibney said Ireland needs to regard housing as a right and not a commodity.
“Housing represents more than just the costs of bricks and mortar, it’s where our children grow, where our families gather, and where generations should feel safe and secure,” she commented.
December 10th, 2020by TU Left Admin | Type: Standard
Financial Services Union calls on Minister Donohoe to raise Ulster Bank vulture fund issue with UK chancellor
Issued : 4 December 2020
Call receives support from figures across the political spectrum
The time has come for Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe to raise concerns about the potential sale of the Ulster Bank loan book to a vulture fund with the UK chancellor. That’s according to general secretary of the Financial Services Union, John O’Connell.
Speculation on the future of Ulster Bank has led to media reports that NatWest, parent company of Ulster Bank, is in discussion with Cerberus to buy its loan book, which is estimated at €20.5 billion euro.
Commenting, Mr O’Connell said: “This speculation has been running on for a couple of months and a clear statement of intent from the Minister for Finance is required, stating that he is willing to contact the chancellor and outline the Government’s opposition to any vulture fund buying any part of Ulster Bank.
“The UK government has a considerable ownership stake in the bank and the Irish Government should be using every lever at its disposal to ensure that jobs are protected, branches remain open, and there is sufficient competition in the market place.
“I ask the Minister for Finance to contact his counterpart in the UK government and to outline in clear terms the Irish Government’s opposition to NatWest selling any part of the Ulster Bank loan book to a vulture fund. NatWest needs to end the speculation and commit to the future of Ulster Bank.”
The FSU has received support from across the political spectrum for this call, including from Pearse Doherty TD (SF); Ged Nash TD (Lab); Catherine Murphy TD (Social Democrats) Richard Boyd Barrett TD (Solidarity / PBP); Sean Canney TD (Ind), and Joan Collins TD (Independents 4 Change), as well as from Government TDs Brendan Smith TD (FF) and Neasa Hourigan TD (Green Party).
Campaigner David Hall, chief executive of the Irish Mortgage Holders Organisation, is also supporting the call.
Commenting, he said: “I wholeheartedly support the FSU’s call on the Minister to intervene to prevent any sale of Ulster Bank’s loan book to a vulture fund. These funds do not care about people, so it is vital for mortgage-holders, for communities and for the economy that Ulster Bank’s loan book is not sold to a vulture fund.”
ENDS
Contact: Brian McDowell, Head of Communications and Public Affairs, FSU. Tel: 087-9161225. Email: brian.mcdowell@fsunion.org.
Notes to editors:
John O’Connell and David Hall are available for interview, on request.
About the Save our Ulster Bank campaign: As part of its campaign, the FSU has also led the creation of a broad coalition of interested groups covering business, farming and communities, calling on NatWest to commit to the future of Ulster Bank in the Republic of Ireland and to bring an end to doubt and speculation for staff and customers of the bank. To date, signatories include the Irish Congress of Trade Unions; the Irish Farmers’ Association; Mandate Trade Union; Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, and Unite the Union, as well as a range of politicians. Visit the FSU website for further details.
About FSU: The FSU is Ireland’s leading union across banking and finance. We represent thousands of staff across the main retail banks, and we have members in more than 70 companies across the finance and fintech sectors. Our members are spread across the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, and Great Britain. We are headquartered in Dublin and we also have a presence in Belfast. We are members of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and UNI Global finance union.
Fórsa said new CSO figures published today (Friday) demonstrate the need for Government to continue to stimulate the economy through income supports, business supports and investment in public services and infrastructure. The CSO data shows that domestic demand soared when Covid-19 restrictions were eased in the third quarter of 2020.
The country’s biggest public service union said the figures underlined the need for Government to reject austerity in its approach to public finances, and instead give people – particularly those on low incomes – the hope and confidence that will help the economy bounce back when the Covid situation stabilises.
These figures are further, encouraging evidence of the need for Government to reject an austerity approach to public finances, which would sap confidence from our economic biosphere.
The union’s general secretary Kevin Callinan said: “These figures are further, encouraging evidence of the need for Government to reject an austerity approach to public finances, which would sap confidence from our economic biosphere.
“If we give people hope, we will also give them confidence to spend and participate in the economy and in their communities. This is the lifeblood that can quickly rejuvenate businesses – be they large, medium or small. And it’s the route to rapid employment, economic and fiscal recovery, which must be grasped in all sectors of the economy – public, private and community.”
Fórsa is currently involved, with other unions, in talks on a successor to the PSSA public service agreement, which expires at the end of the year. Speaking at the union’s conference last month (19th November), Mr Callinan acknowledged that any successor to the PSSA would have to be realistic in the context of a challenging economic and fiscal situation, but said this didn’t mean ruling out pay improvements over the lifetime of a deal.
All the economic projections point to a rapid economic and fiscal bounce-back once the Covid situation stabilises, and we have cause to hope that will start to happen in the coming months.
“All the economic projections point to a rapid economic and fiscal bounce-back once the Covid situation stabilises, and we have cause to hope that will start to happen in the coming months,” he said.
The CSO figures for the July-September 2020 period, during which Covid restrictions were eased considerably, showed:
Personal spending on goods and services grew by over 21%
Underlying domestic activity increased by almost 19%
The distribution, transport, hotel and restaurants sector saw grew by 47%
Exports of goods and services increased by almost 6%.
December 4th, 2020by TU Left Admin | Type: Standard
The World Federation of Trade Unions, representing more than 105 million workers who live, work and struggle in 130 countries of the 5 continents, congratulates the awe-inspiring strike that shacked India with the participation of 25 crore workers, farmers, and employees of all sectors. India’s trade union movement emphatically and strongly condemned the anti-worker, anti-people and anti-national policies of the Modi government.
The WFTU joins its voices with the trade union movement in India and stands by the side of farmers’ unions which are in stay-in protests in the four borders of Delhi, continuing their united struggle for the scrapping of the three farm-laws and also the Electricity Bill 2020. The international class-oriented trade union movement supports the common demands of farmers and workers and all the other demands of the November 26th strike.
We strongly condemn the repression of numerous strike gatherings in several states of India and the false propaganda of the Indian government that aims to defame the trade union struggle and to divide the popular strata. These unacceptable practices reveal once again the authoritarianism of the Indian government but will be in vain. We call upon the workers and farmers of India to continue their struggle until the full satisfaction of their fair demands.
December 2nd, 2020by TU Left Admin | Type: Standard
Disappointment at “no meaningful engagement” from Dept of Health for 5 months
Monday 30th November 2020. The Public Health Committee of the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) met today to consider the overwhelming (94%) vote by Public Health doctors in favour of industrial action in their fight for parity of esteem with other parts of the health service. Currently regardless of qualifications, no public health specialist is recognised as a consultant despite meeting the same criteria as all other consultants appointed in the health service.
The Committee decided to serve notice of Industrial Action on the HSE and the Department of Health saying that if there is no resolution to the issue the following action will commence:
Thursday 14th January:
One Day strike by Specialists in Public Health Medicine and SpRs in Public Health Medicine
Thursday 21st and Friday 22nd January:
Two Day strike by Specialists in Public Health Medicine and SpRs in Public Health Medicine
The Committee will consider further escalation of the action if matters remain unresolved.
Dr. Ina Kelly, Chair of the Public Health Committee of the IMO said: “as a doctor who has committed my career to public health and the improvement of health outcomes for the population I am deeply distressed that it has come to this. It really is time for Government to step up to the plate and recognise their own ethical obligations and to honour agreements”.
Deep disappointment at lack of engagement and misleading comments by Government
The Committee expressed deep disappointment at the lack of concern which the Government has displayed about this issue and criticised the misleading commentary on the issue from Government.
The Public Health Committee specifically state this is not simply about a pay claim but about recognising the importance of consultants leading multi disciplinary teams in a fully resourced public health service for Ireland. While much focus has been on public health medicine as a result of COVID there are many important population health issues that are crucial for the country. COVID has exposed the fragility of our public health departments.
No meaningful engagement with Dept of Health in 5 months
Dr. Ina Kelly said; “This weekend the Government attempted to confuse the issue. We want to be clear we have had no meaningful engagement with the Department of Health in the last five months, no business plan has been discussed with us, no new contract has been agreed. In fact, we are in a worse situation today than we were a year ago. During previous discussions in 2019 it was agreed between the Department and the IMO that the contract to be offered would be the current public only consultant contract. Talk of Slaintecare Contracts is disingenuous in the extreme considering such contracts do not exist and need to be agreed with the wider consultant body. We are not looking for anything more than the current contractual terms which are being offered to any consultant being recruited. It is all the more disappointing that we, as a specialty, have gone above and beyond in terms of taking on additional duties, working onerous hours and doing everything possible within our very limited resources to manage the pandemic.”
Call on Government to honour commitments
Dr. Kelly queried the lack of urgency in the Department of Health on the issue. “The Minister and other Government representatives have called on us not to take industrial action during a pandemic – we call on them to take positive action on an issue which has a simple solution; honour Government commitments and implement the recommendations of the Crowe Howarth report which were supposed to be implemented in July 2020 following many years of no progress”.
Mandate Trade Union, representing almost 30,000 workers in the retail sector, has called on all employers to strictly adhere to Covid19 protocols as the retail sector reopens in the run up to Christmas. The Union has also called on consumers to respect retail workers following an increase in abusive behaviour.
Gerry Light, Mandate General Secretary, said the health and safety of workers should always be paramount.
“The current Covid regulations must be strictly adhered to if we are to reduce transmission of this deadly disease and ensure we don’t go into a third lockdown – which would obviously be bad for employers, workers and the economy.
“But crucially, we need to protect the health and wellbeing of retail workers and their families and that includes affording them dignity and respect at work,” said Light.
He added, “We have received numerous complaints from retail workers who have been verbally abused or threatened by customers after they were requested to wear masks or to socially distance. Abuse is never part of the job, and in these difficult times, it’s essential that we recognise the efforts of our frontline workers and we all protect them from abusive behaviour.”
Mandate is calling on employers, consumers and the government to ensure the health and safety of workers is paramount.
All employers should:
Ensure shops are not overcrowded by managing queuing systems and controlling numbers inside and outside of stores
Investigate whether to extend opening times to spread the customer base, while also allowing designated times for vulnerable customers.
Allow workers the voluntary option of working beyond their agreed hours and times and adequately rewarding them for this.
Strictly adhere to the wearing of face coverings and manage social distancing, using qualified staff to police these policies.
Make regular announcements on intercoms about social distancing and other health and safety measures.
Ensure an adequate supply of hand sanitizer is available at all times.
Adopt a zero tolerance approach from customers towards staff and remove abusive customers from the premises while providing supports for workers.
Mandate is calling on the government to:
Provide clarity around the enforcement of fines for the refusal to adhere to Covid regulations.
Mandate is calling on consumers to:
Adhere to social distancing guidelines
Use hand sanitizer and wash your hands regularly.
Be patient with retail staff and other customers and under no circumstances verbally abuse, threaten or assault shop workers.
Mr Light stated: “Christmas is always a busy and very stressful period for everyone, but particularly shop workers, and this year will be more difficult than most. We’re asking people to be mindful of the pressures facing shop workers and remember that workers requesting that customers abide by health and safety policies do so at the behest of their employer and government regulations.”
He concluded: “If we are genuine about our appreciation for the ‘essential work’ of retail staff, then we must all play our part over the coming weeks and months. Respect retail workers, and remember that respect is not just for Christmas.”
December 1st, 2020by TU Left Admin | Type: Standard
