NERA, the National Employment Rights Authority, had to prosecute 108 employers this year for failure to comply to a legal situation already skewed in their favour.
6,000 workers had over €2.5 million stolen from their wages and this figure is only the tip of the iceberg with NERA employing only 69 inspectors and with most workers in the dark as how to proceed with suspicions or complaints against ruthless bosses. Even when these cases reach the point of prosecution the companies can hold them up in the High Court and with the NERA budget being cut from €9.6 million to €7.9 million it looks like the reality of super exploitation is much higher than the above figures for money recouped reveal.
13% of employers don’t provide proper pay slips for workers, 47% were found not be complying with holiday entitlements, some employers kept no records whatsoever and one facility in the midlands, for example, paid no holiday pay.
Karl Marx a long time ago pointed out that our wages represent only a portion of the working day, they don’t bear any relation to the amount of value we create, if you make 10 TV sets a day your wage may be enough to buy 2.
The boss’s profit comes from that unpaid part of every day when you make him 8 TV sets for free. So the system is based of theft even when it runs according to it’s own legality. But this isn’t enough to satisfy the boss’s absolute greed and as the NERA figures indicate there is another layer of extra exploitation dumped on workers whenever the bosses feel they can et away with it. We have to make it clear that they can’t.
Monday, March 1, 2010
Monday, November 2, 2009
November the 6th....
Remember remember the 6th of November!
On the 6th of November workers all over Ireland, both North and South, will march against Government cutbacks and the handling of the economic crisis. With Fianna Fail intent on slashing their way through public sector jobs and destroying our services the worker's movement is returning to the streets.
This has been an intense year for working class people and many many lessons have been learned. We started last winter with the Pensioners resisting the Governments suggestion that Medical Cards would be taken from the over 70's which brought 15,000 old people onto the streets on the same day as a students anti-fees demonstration of 15,000. When the two marches met at the Dail the young and the old greeted each other with massive cheers. But it was the old folks who shouted down speakers from the mainstream parties who took to the stage to placate the anger.
We then had the march in support of our Teachers which saw 80,000 teachers, parents and students take to the streets.
The movement was climbing all leading up to the ICTU march of 120,000 workers, both public and private sector, marching together. The march was led by the Waterford Crystal workers who had occupied their plant in February.
On that march the radical left's call for a 24 hour stoppage had huge resonance and the Union leaders were forced to call a day of action.
But the movement was demoralised massively by the Union Leader's decision to call off the day of action with 3 days notice, only to go into 'talks' with the government.
The ground was set for the Government to bring in their vicious April Budget, which if the worker's movement had progressed would have met massive opposition. With the working class demobilised it was easy for Fianna Fail to kick us while down.
Over the summer the anger expressed itself in the swing towards Labour in the council elections, the election of 5 People Before Profit candidates and the devastation of the Green Party.
This passive show of anger at the ballot box was followed by the break out of a number of economic struggles- at Marine Terminal Limited, Mr. Binman, Four Courts cleaners, Carrolls Joinery and the impressive Thomas Cook occupation.
The autumn saw the continuation of some of these strikes and the break out of further economic struggles at Coca Cola HBC and Green Isle Foods.
Now we have once more a worker's movement on the rise with the 24-7 alliance, an alliance of firefighters, nurses, soldiers and even the police representatives, who held meetings of over 1,500 in Sligo, 1,000 in Cork, 1,000 in Kilkenny and over 1,300 in Dublin. the alliance is joining the Trade Union march on the 6th of November when we'll have Public and Private sector workers, soldiers and firefighter on the streets.
There is a National Stoppage planned for Nov 24th.
Lets hope he Union leaders aren't stupid enough to lose the momentum once again.
We have to make sure we keep the pressure on them not to cave in.
On the 6th of November workers all over Ireland, both North and South, will march against Government cutbacks and the handling of the economic crisis. With Fianna Fail intent on slashing their way through public sector jobs and destroying our services the worker's movement is returning to the streets.
This has been an intense year for working class people and many many lessons have been learned. We started last winter with the Pensioners resisting the Governments suggestion that Medical Cards would be taken from the over 70's which brought 15,000 old people onto the streets on the same day as a students anti-fees demonstration of 15,000. When the two marches met at the Dail the young and the old greeted each other with massive cheers. But it was the old folks who shouted down speakers from the mainstream parties who took to the stage to placate the anger.
We then had the march in support of our Teachers which saw 80,000 teachers, parents and students take to the streets.
The movement was climbing all leading up to the ICTU march of 120,000 workers, both public and private sector, marching together. The march was led by the Waterford Crystal workers who had occupied their plant in February.
On that march the radical left's call for a 24 hour stoppage had huge resonance and the Union leaders were forced to call a day of action.
But the movement was demoralised massively by the Union Leader's decision to call off the day of action with 3 days notice, only to go into 'talks' with the government.
The ground was set for the Government to bring in their vicious April Budget, which if the worker's movement had progressed would have met massive opposition. With the working class demobilised it was easy for Fianna Fail to kick us while down.
Over the summer the anger expressed itself in the swing towards Labour in the council elections, the election of 5 People Before Profit candidates and the devastation of the Green Party.
This passive show of anger at the ballot box was followed by the break out of a number of economic struggles- at Marine Terminal Limited, Mr. Binman, Four Courts cleaners, Carrolls Joinery and the impressive Thomas Cook occupation.
The autumn saw the continuation of some of these strikes and the break out of further economic struggles at Coca Cola HBC and Green Isle Foods.
Now we have once more a worker's movement on the rise with the 24-7 alliance, an alliance of firefighters, nurses, soldiers and even the police representatives, who held meetings of over 1,500 in Sligo, 1,000 in Cork, 1,000 in Kilkenny and over 1,300 in Dublin. the alliance is joining the Trade Union march on the 6th of November when we'll have Public and Private sector workers, soldiers and firefighter on the streets.
There is a National Stoppage planned for Nov 24th.
Lets hope he Union leaders aren't stupid enough to lose the momentum once again.
We have to make sure we keep the pressure on them not to cave in.
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