In today's news, both the Irish Independent and Irish Times take a perspective on the implications for existing public sector pay agreements in the wake of the deal agreed at the WRC with unions representing Dublin Bus drivers and the prospect of industrial action by Gardaí. And someone in the letters' page of the IT doesn't like the term "pay restoration" (where have I heard that one before...?).
The new head of the WRC says industrial action levels remain relatively low, while a survey of employment law practitioners (including trade unionists) finds that half the respondents believe the new WRC system for resolving employment disputes between workers and employers is worse than the 'much criticised' version that it replaced.
Meanwhile, at the ICTU pensions conference yesterday, delegates were told that the Constitution may need to be amended to ensure that a new universal pension scheme is not raided by a future government. The Indo also reports that a new Friends First survey reveals that many Irish workers are "sleepwalking into retirement."
In other news, Focus Ireland reports that homeless families in Dublin, unable to access emergency hotel accommodation, have been “spending the night in fast-food restaurants”, and the LÉ James Joyce is returning today, after rescuing 2,500 migrants on its recent deployment to the Mediterranean. Meawhile, Russian and Syrian forces continue to bomb Aleppo to dust.
Your moment of Zen this morning is another facepalm moment from the US presidential election. But, just for a change, it doesn't feature a tiny-handed orange racist or Hillary Clinton.
This time it's Libertarian presidential nominee and former Governer of New Mexico Gary Johnson. This week he was asked to name his favorite foreign leader. He blanked, and not for the first time. Earlier this month, on MSNBC's Morning Joe, he asked "What is Aleppo?""The instance betrayed a stunning lack of interest or even superficial knowledge of the civil war in Syria that has been raging for more than five years" - NPR.
Yeah, plenty more where that came from before November 8th.
