Fórsa has warned senior management that it will take action unless there is immediate engagement with the union on discriminatory treatment of Traveller workers at the Leitrim Development Company.

A far higher percentage of unionised private companies will increase pay this year when compared to non-union firms, according to a new study.

Substantive aspects of employment law need to be reviewed to protect workers in the so-called ‘gig economy,’ but reform of social welfare and taxation policy is a bigger issue. So said Jeremias Prassl of Magdalen College, Oxford, who spoke at the prestigious Industrial Relations News conference on 8th March.

Internal dispute resolution boards, which are emerging in various commercial semi-state companies, have boosted consultation and worker input on strategic issues that impact on members’ jobs and working conditions.

A memorial event, to mark the first anniversary of the tragic loss of the four crew members Rescue 116, took place in Aghleam in County Mayo on 14th March.

Fórsa wants pay scales shortened as quickly as possible for staff who joined non-commercial semi-state bodies after January 2011. The union has said a new talks process, agreed before Saint Patrick’s weekend, must lead to equal treatment for all by removing two points from new entrant pay scales.

Fórsa addressed the Oireachtas Committee on Budgetary Oversight last week, and demanded the reinstatement of tax relief on individual workers’ trade union subscriptions.

We look at the main stories in the current edition of the news bulletin. Presented by Hazel Gavigan and Niall Shanahan