Delighted to attend the #Forsa2026 national conference in Killarney to chair the launch of two significant research reports on the employee experience of remote and hybrid working, commissioned by Fórsa and conducted by independent research agencies: amarách research and Ireland Thinks.

Happy Europe Day 🇪🇺 From equal pay for women doing equal work to a living wage for our lowest paid workers, a shorter working week, family leave and safer workplaces. On any objective analysis membership of the EU has enhanced the range and robustness of labour law protection in Ireland.

Fifty years ago this week, the Irish Government received formal notification the European Commission had rejected Ireland’s request for a two-year derogation from an Equal Pay Directive. Happy May Day. Privileged to spend my days upholding workers’ rights to fair treatment.

Census 1926 shows how work has changed in Ireland over a century

Happy May Day fellow wage slaves 🚩 It’s better in a union.

Trade Union Fórsa has written to the Department of Public Expenditure calling for increased access to remote working for civil service staff due to the impact of the fuel crisis and continued congestion on Irish roads. jrnl.ie/7019025

Missed a trick in not calling a #Census1926 bank holiday. I can’t be alone in having got just 4 hours sleep this weekend.

Brussels pushes remote working to ease energy crisis ft.trib.al/zFJxMUj

IRELAND: Government must protect workers, not business interests www.ictu.ie/news/governm...

“Government treat fiscal restraint as a principle that applies only when workers ask for something, and govern in the interests of those who shout the loudest.” Our @ictu.bsky.social general secretary writing in today’s Mail on Sunday on the last weekend’s half-billion euro business handout.

Fanboys of scaling back our ‘Big State’ took one hell of a beating tonight. Or does tax expenditure and yet another multimillion euro corporate welfare handout not count?!?

Why the failure of Noël Browne’s mother and child scheme still matters 75 years later

Forget that. Unlike in other member states, we’re guaranteed a substitute day if a public holiday falls on a Saturday or Sunday. What Ireland does need is more annual leave. No improvement on the 20 days entitlement in 30 years.

I might not have the regular Irish Times column that Steen has, but I do have quite a bit more than a few anecdotes to back up what I say. Maria Steen thinks the #genderPayGap is a myth but that is a hopelessly basic and naive take. Here is why. paygap.ie/posts/maria-...

IRELAND: Flexibility from employers needed in response to fuel prices pressure – unions www.ictu.ie/news/flexibi...

Why isn’t this front page news??? There’s no gender pay gap! It’s just a lot of hocus pocus and individual choices. Could it be because to reach this conclusion you have to ignore minor details like what and who the GPG is actually measuring?

Despite the EU Commissioner for Energy advising people to work from home and drive less to save fuel , the Tánaiste says the government has no plans to alter its advice around remote working. jrnl.ie/7000419

More than 6,600 employers have not yet signed up to the pensions auto-enrolment scheme, but the vast majority have – 108,894 eligible employers. 768,381 eligible employees have been auto-enrolled. Savings contributions from employers, employees and the State stood at a combined €158m last week.

More remote working as a partial solution to price hikes at the pumps is supported by trade unions to protect the living standards of many employees. “It would be cost neutral to employers and the Exchequer, and reduce unnecessary car journeys where jobs can be done from home,” says Bambrick.

Facilitating more remote and flexible working arrangements would mean fewer expensive fills at the forecourt for workers, and is a cost-free response to fuel prices pressure by employers and for the Exchequer – our Irish Congress of Trade Unions statement www.ictu.ie/news/flexibi...

Think an inheritance tax cut will benefit you and yours? Not unless you’re one of the small number who receives an inheritance over the current tax-free limits (around 60,000 people over 5yrs): 14,006 in 2024 13,055 in 2023 12,197 in 2022 12,530 in 2021 11,376 in 2020 (Revenue)

If death-in-service benefits are the best thing about your occupational pension, it doesn’t pass the smell test of a ‘high-quality pension plan’. The first and foremost purpose of a pension is to give you a decent income in retirement, it’s not to insure the income of widows and orphans.

63% of workers drive to work. For those working nights and in rural areas, the bus isn’t an option and housing has pushed out the distance to work (16.8km average). Remote work, compressed hours (longer shifts, shorter week) or a pay rise will help with high prices at the pumps.

Employers won’t be ‘penalised’ as Ireland to miss deadline to introduce pay transparency law. But women workers and the country* will. *Only six months ago the EU Court of Justice fined Ireland €1.54m for delays in fully introducing new work-life balance rules.

This International Women’s Day, our message is clear: Reporting on pay costs employers a few hundred euros. Inequality costs women workers millions. Trade unions stand firmly behind the Pay Transparency Directive. We will not go back to pay secrecy. Equal pay now. #IWD #EqualPayNow

Happy International Women’s Day gals💜 #IWD #IWD2026

The @ec.europa.eu has sent a clear message: the pay transparency directive is here to stay. National governments who hedged their bets must now make up for lost time and work hard to ensure they meet the forthcoming transposition deadline

11,000 reasons for new pay transparency rules: * Know what a job pays before applying. * No interview questions about earnings history. * No pay secrecy clauses/ company policy. * Know the average your boss pays your peers.

Pointless, but predictable, recommendation if the Act underpinning the code of practice isn’t strengthened.

IRELAND: Women will ‘carry the cost’ of any delay to pay transparency rules, union warns Equality Minister Norma Foley www.independent.ie/irish-news/w...

Fifty years after equal pay became a legal right, women working in Ireland today earn about 90 cents for every euro men earn for each hour worked on average. Enough already with business efforts to frustrate pay transparency and government foot-dragging. Get the bill done.

Given the week that’s in it, there will be a lot of opining on women’s stalled/ slow progress in the workplace and a lot of “nothing to see here” counter arguments. To the latter, the gender pay gap is the difference in hourly pay rates not wages. Hope that helps.

Ellen Coyne is a must listen on Inside Politics (19.25 mins in) on this shameful, shortsighted refusal of planning permission. Powerful @ellenmcoyne.bsky.social 👏👏 podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/i...

A new survey from the Irish Congress of Trade Unions has found that more than half of workers believe that their pay does not match their skills and effort

Ibec out early with its women’s day greetings: Equal Pay for Equal Work at a Later Date 🫶

“The contraction in hybrid working may reflect significant job losses in the service industries where it is most widely used.” Same with the headline grabbing rise in the number who never work from home. Look at the sectors with job growth👇

Number of people working in tech dropped by almost 13,000 last year. www.independent.ie/business/job...

I’m just spitballing here, maybe this is something to do with the fact that there are half a million more people in employment, compared to Q4 2019 including in jobs that can’t be done remote.

As someone who works on Parnell Square, I struggle to recognise the Dublin Civic Trust’s view of the Square’s “extraordinary landscape”. Give the Rotunda Hospital midwives and premature babies their critical care unit. www.irishtimes.com/health/2026/...

📰 NEW OP-ED ETUC General Secretary @estherlynch.bsky.social sounds the alarm: Europe’s competitiveness debate is being hijacked by corporate lobbyists pushing deregulation. The answer to Europe's real challenges is instead a mission-led economy built on investment and quality jobs. 🧵

I have some words here on the huge growth in employment in the over 65s and the ongoing wait on new legislation to let more workers with contractual retirement ages work for longer.

Irish fathers discover their kids??? No. It’s only 10 years since the State started to support new dads to take time off to care for their babies (now 11 weeks paid leave in baby’s first two years). I’ve some words here on what’s and who is behind our improving division of work & care.

The childcare businesses who didn’t like having the fees they charge parents capped at €295 a week per child, and so they left the public funding scheme so that they can continue charging some of the highest fees in the EU, now don’t want to pay their staff at least €15 an hour.

Looking forward to the follow-up article on price cuts when their 9% VAT rate kicks in on July 1.

Before the first weekend in February became a bank holiday in 2023, it was a long eleven-week slog for workers between New Year’s Day and St Patrick’s Day - Me on the benefits of the St Brigid’s bank holiday. www.rte.ie/news/busines...

c.5,000 employees have already voluntarily enrolled into the new MyFutureFund pension, i.e. employees who fall outside the age (23-60) and income (<€20,000) criteria for automatic enrolment. What’s more, voluntary enrolment is the most common query to the customer helpline. Very, very promising.

I’ll be chatting to @mcculld.bsky.social about the new My Future Fund deduction from your wages, on RTÉ Radio 1 shortly.

Spotted a new deduction from your payslip? It's probably your new pension, here's how it works jrnl.ie/6935136

Today’s lesson: Pension auto-enrolment - who, what, why and how. Me writing for @intonews.bsky.social Available in school staffrooms and on intouch.into.ie