Unions hit out at employers’ criticism of new State measures to benefit workers

• Published date: 28 March 2024
• Author: MARTIN WALL
• Publication title: Irish Times (Dublin, Ireland)

In a report published today, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu) criticised complaints from employers about the cost of Government reforms aimed at benefiting workers

It says the “false perspective” about the rising costs of doing business articulated by many business groups had “become the accepted truth in many quarters”. Discussion on this issue has to be based on reality and not fantasy, it says.

Ictu general secretary Owen Reidy said businesses had received additional State supports for nearly a decade due to Brexit, Covid-19, the war in Ukraine and the cost-of-living crisis.

“The trade union movement supported some of these measures as they related to specific external shocks/factors. But it seems some business groups expect unique and additional supports for specific factors to be mainstreamed and to become the norm,” he said.

Ictu said the Government had introduced or was planning to put in place measures such as a higher minimum wage, a statutory sick pay scheme, pension auto-enrolment, parental and domestic violence leave as well as the right to request remote working.

The trade union movement said it welcomed “the direction of travel of these reforms both individually and collectively”. It said that in many cases the reforms “will merely bring us closer into line with pre-existing norms and practices in...