Equality

British and Irish unions condemn “repugnant acts of hate on our streets”

After horrendous far-right violence in the UK and Ireland, the European Trade Union Confederation is convening unions in Dublin to discuss a plan to develop trade union capacity in conflict resolution and peacebuilding. The UK’s Trades Union Congress (TUC) and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions...

Delayed pay transparency to cost women workers over €570 million a year in lost wages

New figures from the Irish Congress of Trade Unions have revealed that the Government’s failure to transpose the EU Pay Transparency Directive on time will cost working women more than €570 million per year in lost wages. The analysis, based on CSO earnings and employment data and international...

A Tale of Two Directives - equal pay and pay transparency

Fifty years ago this week, the Irish Government received formal notification the European Commission had rejected Ireland’s request for a derogation from an Equal Pay Directive prohibiting pay discrimination between men and women. To mark May Day, our social policy officer Dr Laura Bambrick looks at...

Government must not cave to employer lobbying on pay transparency delay, warn unions

Ahead of Statements on International Women’s Day in the Seanad (Wednesday, 4 March), the Irish Congress of Trade Unions is renewing its call on the Government to stand firm against employer lobbying to delay the June deadline for new EU pay transparency rules becoming law. Adopted in 2023, the Pay...

Quality Employment and Good Jobs: The First Step to a New Economic Model

22 Feb, 2026

This report is the first in a new series of papers on the New Economic Model. In the New Economic Model Policy Series we delve deeper into specific policy areas and elaborate what it is that we think needs to be done. This report focuses on Quality Employment and Good Jobs.

Government’s childcare plan guarantees more of the same

Responding to the Government’s plans to acquire childcare facilities, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions said: “Scarce childcare places, unaffordable fees and high staff turnover are the direct result of the Government’s obsession with keeping business owners sweet, and their new so-called State-led...

Irish Congress of Trade Unions urges Minister for Justice to act on violence and aggression against minorities

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions has written to the Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration, urging him to take action on the increasing violence and aggression against minorities. Recent months have seen a spate of violent assaults and hate crimes against minorities across Ireland, and...

What’s behind the long childcare waiting lists?

Struggling to find childcare before your maternity leave runs out? You are not alone. So, what’s behind the long childcare waiting lists for young children and what needs to be done to fix it. First let’s bust two myths. The shortage is not caused by childcare facilities closing down as a result the...

Irish Congress of Trade Unions hosts national anti-racism conference

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions will today (2nd September 2025) host a national conference addressing anti-racism in the workplace and beyond. Now in its second year, the conference is run by Stronger Together Anti-Racist Workplaces and Trade Unions Project, which supports ICTU's affiliated...

Behind Ireland's €1.5m EU fine for directive delay

Last Friday (1 August) news broke that the Court of Justice of the European Union had fined Ireland €1.5m for the incomplete transposition of the directive on work-life balance into Irish law. We were 18 months late fully transposing its requirements, partly because the pandemic had more or less...