Congress and Ibec have come together to facilitate and encourage workers and employers to give practical support to the humanitarian relief efforts of the International Red Cross and UNICEF Ireland in Ukraine. The campaign is encouraging workers to donate one hour’s worth of their pay to this relief fund. Where they do, Ibec has agreed to encourage employers to match the contribution on a voluntary basis.

SIPTU Deputy General Secretary, John King, has told the union’s Biennial Delegate Conference that members within the community sector will begin a national campaign of protest, industrial and strike action aimed at ending “the neglect of this sector by the state”.

President Michael D Higgins, also addressed the SIPTU conference, and said that unions must play a key role in reshaping the working world in the aftermath of Covid-19. 

Meanwhile, the Cabinet has agreed to draft legislation which will pave the way for a new pension scheme for private sector workers. It is estimated that currently just 35% of private sector workers have a pension, something which makes Ireland an outlier internationally.

All workers will be entitled to paid sick leave for the first time under new laws due to come into force in September. The cabinet signed off on the new statutory scheme yesterday that Tánaiste and Enterprise Minister Leo Varadkar said must become  a legacy of the pandemic. Workers will be entitled to 70pc of their wages up to €110 a day for three days, when the legislation is enacted later this year. This will rise to an entitlement of five days paid leave in 2024, seven days in 2025, and 10 days in 2026.

Further on the P&O ferries issue, unions have criticised government plans to tackle the so-called fire and rehire of workers in the wake of P&O Ferries sacking 800 employees without notice.

And finally, Rescue118 happened to be night training over Dún Briste in Ballycastle, Co. Mayo,  on Sunday night when local photographer Martyn Harris who was trying to capture the aurora at the time captured this instead.