Two unions – the INTO and TUI – have taken a strong stance against pay discrimination. The TUI have just announced that its members have voted by 87% to 13% to reject a deal which contains pay unequality.
Imagine a union movement that consistently voted to accept pay deals where women were paid less than men. Or where people of colour got a lower pay rate! It would be an outrage.
Yet, teachers, nurses or firefighters who join the public service after 2011 are put on a lower rate.
They do the exact same job as those who started work before 2011 but are put on a different pay scale.
Fortunately, two unions – the INTO and TUI – have taken a strong stance against this discrimination. The TUI have just announced that its members have voted by 87% to 13% to reject a deal which contains pay discrimination.
Tragically, bigger unions like SIPRU and IMPACT, which have a leadership traditionally closer to the government, have accepted this deal.
The loss of earning for young teachers is huge. Over the course of their career, they will lose up to €100,000.
Yet despite this blatant discrimination, Leo Varadkar talks about a ‘republic of opportunity’ and a ‘squeezed middle’. In reality his government is squeezing young ‘middle income’ teachers and nurses.
Meanwhile his education Minister Richard Bruton has consistently refused to accept a principle of equal pay for equal work. He has given no commitment that the pay gap between new and older entrants will EVER be removed.
Instead he pretends that equal pay could only be paid for by more cuts to programmes to help disadvantaged students.
It is a bit like saying back in the 1970s that there would be no fire service if the state had to give equal pay to women.
Maybe Fine Gael could think about closing a few tax loop holes on corporations in order to give equal pay.