Responding to Cabinet approval for a new pay-related unemployment payment, Irish Congress of Trade Unions general secretary Owen Reidy said: “Congress strongly supports moving from flat-rate to pay-related social welfare benefits for PAYE workers.
“For too long full-time workers have been left to endure a sharp fall in income and living standards after losing their job. The devastation from the recent lay-off of the 650-strong workforce in Tara Mines in County Meath is a pertinent case in point.”
He said: “Ireland is one of only four EU27 member states, along with Greece, Malta, and Poland, to pay the same low flat rate benefits to all unemployed workers (€220 a week), despite workers paying pay-related social insurance contributions when in employment.
“Across the rest of the EU, contributory social welfare benefits are pay-related - the weekly payment is a percentage of a worker’s previous wage - to allow workers to continue to pay their mortgage and other bills so as to maintain their normal living standards in the short-term while looking for a new job that matches their skills.”
Mr Reidy added: “The average time spent on contributory unemployment benefit is 13 weeks, with 70% of workers in a new job within six months of signing on. Claims that workers will delay getting back to work if paid an enhanced payment proved to be baseless during the pandemic when laid-off workers signed off the PUP in their droves at the earliest opportunity when the economy reopened.
“The Irish Congress of Trade Unions and our affiliated unions look forward to engaging with Government and the Opposition to get the design of this significant social policy reform right for workers and their families.”
We support the call of the Unions at Tara Mines for a fast-tracking of this scheme or a similar scheme for these workers.”
