The Journal.ie reports this morning that Fórsa's Irish Youth Justice branch members have been instructed not to cooperate with arrangements to facilitate classroom teaching on the Oberstown campus due to changes brought in at the centre since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Saturday's Irish Times reported that civil servants in the Department of Transport have been told it's likely large numbers of them will be working from home for the rest of the year. Sticking with transport, Martin Wall and Jennifer Bray report today that the Government may have to stump up considerable sums of money to keep key public transport services on the road.

While no meeting has yet been scheduled following the postponement of last Friday's meeting between unions and Aer Lingus management, expect to hear some news about developments this week.

The Business Post yesterday reported that workers who feel their employers aren’t doing enough to protect them from the coronavirus have been encouraged to report them to the Health and Safety Authority by Minister Heather Humphreys. That story is available here, continues here, and a summary of the ‘Return to Work Safely Protocol’ for companies and their employees is available here. The full HSE document is available here.

Elsewhere, the construction industry expects recovery to take at least 12 months.

In his RTE blog meanwhile, Sean Whelan dissects the UK government's confusing and divisive message about returning to work and...erm...staying alert. Your daily reminder that, despite the VE-Day conga lines, the UK has the highest Covid-19 death toll in Europe.

Our #HiddenHero campaign continues this week, and will include some stories about teamwork as Fórsa members respond to Covid-19 with new services in the face of new challenges. Last Friday we published this blog by Aideen O'Riordan, a speech and language therapy manager in Cork University Hospital. I'd encourage you to read it as it provides a unique insight into Aideen's working week in a clinical environment in the midst of a global pandemic.

Your Zen this morning is suggested by our colleague Mick McGloughlin, who asked that we pay tribute to Kraftwerk founding member Florian Schneider, whose death was announced last week. Happy to do so Mick as I know there are a few fans about this parish, and a few of us were lucky enough to attend their Dublin show in 2016, though Florian by then hatte das Gebäude verlassen.

One of my favourite Kraftwerk tunes is linked to the image above, and the BBC4 Synth Britannia documentary (save it for your evening viewing) shows the deep influence the band had on that glorious period of late 70s / early 80s post-punk, new wave and on later iterations of pop music.

This affectionate parody by Bill Bailey is also funny and brilliant.

And finally, because the influence of Little Richard can't be understated (he crash-landed the Rock 'n' Roll spaceship on planet Earth after all) let's give him the nod here.

Have a good week, stay safe.