Will the tendering process for bus services help move people out of cars and into public transport? And can the Minister for Transport ensure that the tendering process will not become a race to the bottom for workers in their pay and working conditions?
PRECARIOUS WORK,ZERO HOUR CONTRACTS – driving wages down because there’s less hours worked, with resulting poverty. Not so for employers. Profits are up, some by as much as 40% on pre-crash levels. A Bill to tackle these issues was debated in Dáil yesterday; the government of course want business as usual. The unions must act
In the Dáil today, Brid asked the Minister about pay for Defence Forces men and women, and how he expects to hold onto staff when wages are so low that many army and navy families are dependent on Family Income Supplement to make ends meet. He doesn’t see a problem. But then he wouldn’t would he, on a six figure salary plus expenses.
Reps from Irish Aviation Authority and Commissioner for Aviation respond to questions put by Brid Smith TD, People Before Profit, at the Dáil Transport committee. Bríd queried the standards used by the IAA and CAR as applied to Ryanair, compared with the more stringent standards used by their UK counterparts.
Press Release- Bríd Smith TD, People Before Profit . 26/09/2017
Brid Smith TD challenges Varadkar over O’Leary’s Fine Gael fundraising and states lack of protection for worker’s rights
People Before Profit TD Brid Smith has said that the travel chaos inflicted on Ryanair passengers would have had Fine Gael TDs “jumping up and down if it were caused by a workers strike”. Instead both the Government and Fine Gael TDs were remarkably quiet despite the hardship caused by the anti-union practices of Ryanair and Michael O’Leary.Read more »
I was asked to make public the queries that I put today about workers rights in the fishing industry. I sit on the Dáil Committee for Jobs, and too often the focus is on the employer or the industry, and the workers’ story is not often looked for. The responses to my queries are not on this video clip, they were too long, but the entire session can be viewed on the Oireachtas website.
WE HAVE MORE DOG WARDENS THAN LABOUR INSPECTORS. I’m on the Dail committee that deals with jobs. I spoke today on the underlying reasons for the abuse of foreign workers, especially those outside the EU. Government’s policies make them appear as ‘lesser’ people (think of the misery of Direct Provision centres). ‘Fortress Europe’s racist policies towards refugees, signals what’s acceptable across Europe, including here, and the bosses lap it up. Virtual slavery is seen as okay and of course, increases profits. We must crack down on unscrupulous employers. They do us all down, native and foreign workers.
JOBSTOWN DEFENDANTS and CLERY’S BOSSES. What have they got in common? Very little – a point I made today in the Dáil. Jobstown defendents could have ended up with a Life sentence – the State spent millions trying to frame them. Fair play to the jury! But the crooks that robbed Clery’s workers of their livelihoods, their hopes, their futures.What might they get if its proved they fell foul of indutrial relations laws? A maximum fine of €500! And they want us to respect the courts and ‘justice’ delivered by well-mannered thugs.
I had the privelege of moving this bill. We want worker’s rights protected in projects that are funded by public money. Very often the state colludes deliberately or by accidently, in doing workers down. It does this by awarding contracts to firms that treat their employees shamefully, or who sub-contract to others to do so. The State must end this practice, which only fuels the ‘race to the bottom’ for workers.