The Irish Times reports that Section 39 staff are to ballot for industrial action over pay restoration, as decided by trade unions yesterday. Our own Catherine Keogh is quoted in the piece, and highlights the extreme lengths workers have gone to during the pandemic to ensure high-quality service delivery, all the while, still being denied this basic request.

Meanwhile, Aer Lingus workers, whose pay is to be restored from 30 per cent of its pre-Covid rate to 40-50 per cent next month, say they are living in “near poverty”, unable to buy school uniforms, cover rent or afford petrol to get to work.

Experts are disagreeing on the best way to tackle Covid, after Sweden’s former chief epidemiologist Dr Johan Giesecke, admitted Sweden's herd immunity approach may not work in Ireland, due to poorer public services, lack of sick pay and larger class sizes. Whereas others say governments should be ambitious, and consider adopting a “zero Covid strategy”, in the knowledge that it likely cannot be achieved.

Elsewhere, former Debenhams workers are still fighting for a fair redundancy package, and yesterday marched on the Taoiseach’s Cork office, demanding support from Government which they say has treated them “shabbily and disrespectfully”.

A career profile in the Irish Times asked a Central Bank worker his number one piece of advice for new graduates, and I think we'd all agree with his response.

If you're free this lunch time, Fórsa is hosting a webinar exploring the future of remote working. 'Out of office: Remote working after Covid-19' will be available to view here at 1pm today, and will feature our own Bernard Harbor, as well as Silicon Republic's Jenny Darmody and the DBEI's Ruth Morrissey. You'd be very welcome to join. 

And finally, this morning's zen is a video I came across on Facebook recently. A young man promised his dad that he'd learn how to play piano 10 years ago. Over lockdown, he finally put his mind to the task and ended up surprising his father on his birthday by performing 'Summertime' for him live on BBC Breakfast. Nice little heartwarming watch if you have a few minutes to spare.