Apprenticeship pay a big problem for hitting construction targets, Ictu congress told
Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu)
biennial conference in Belfast heard on Wednesday.
The conference backed a motion from the Connect trade union calling for the application of the National Minimum Wage to all apprentices.
The union's Stephen Murphy said the average age of first year apprentices in building trades had steadily increased over the years and many now had significant financial obligations. Many were struggling, he said, while many more prospective apprentices couldn't afford to pursue their chosen career because they faced the prospect of earning about €7 an hour, or in some case less, under the terms of current regulations.
According to research previously carried out by the union and CSO figures, the average age for starting an apprenticeship in the construction industry is 21, 13 per cent of those doing the apprenticeships have at least one child, 46 per cent are renting and 5 per cent will have a mortgage.
READ MORE
New pay rates for apprentices due to come into effect at the end of this month, start at €7.66 per hour, and it is year three of an apprenticeship before pay exceeds the current National Minimum Wage of €13.50 per hour.
'This is a huge challenge for the country,' said Connect general secretary Paddy Kavanagh. 'There's 80,000 skilled workers required to meet the current demands in housing, 80,000 new workers skilled, craft workers to to meet requirements in housing and infrastructure projects.
'How are we going to get them? It's not a question of bringing them in from other jurisdictions, because the apprenticeship standards don't match, so we have to train them in Ireland. The only way to do that is to make it attractive for people to become apprentices.'
Mr Kavanagh said many employers in the sector agree pay rates should start with the National Minimum Wage as a baseline but say legislation is required as they would put themselves at a competitive disadvantage if they were to apply them unilaterally.
The conference also backed a motion from Connect that called for the €600 figure on which statutory redundancy is calculated to be brought up to €1,015 in order to align it with average weekly wages.
The union said Micheál Martin had overseen the introduction of the process and setting of the €600 figure as minister for enterprise 21 years ago when the understanding had been it would be regularly updated but this had never happened. It is time to do that, said Connect's Brian Nolan.
Mick Nerney of the Financial Services Union said those facing redundancy need 'fairness and protection at a time they are struggling' while Siptu's Neil McGowan said thousands of private sector workers are set to be displaced by AI and the stature redundancy regulations would contribute to the financial hardship they would endure as a result. 'It is,' he said, 'a pressing issue for the union movement'.
The conference also backed a move to establish a working group at the operation of the Workplace Relations Commission code on the right to request remote working.
The code, which came into effect last year, and is due to be reviewed in 2026, does not require employers to grant remote or hybrid working but regulates how requests have to be considered. It has been repeatedly criticised by unions and those who had requests rejected as a box ticking exercise for employers.
'It is clear the legislation doesn't favour workers,' said Carol Scheffer of the Communication Workers Union. 'We need to look for a better code of practice.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Times
31 minutes ago
- Irish Times
An Irish industrial folly spawns a new generation of cutting-edge creativity
THIS TOO WILL PASS The failures of our past litter the landscape. Some are more visible than others. Drive out into the Inagh Valley, in Connemara, and there is beauty at every turn. Lakes reflect the outline of mountains, and sheep nibble picturesquely at gorse. Experiencing it from the road reminds you that we have already encroached on this wild paradise by laying down the tarmac, but that is only the start of things. Here and there are stands of abandoned cement, the shells of houses and hotels, the shadow of the old railway. The Carrolls salmon hatchery is one of the more hidden of Ireland's industrial follies, and it is a remarkable story. Back in the late 1980s, the PJ Carroll cigarette company was branching out, and commissioned the architectural practice Scott Tallon Walker to design what was envisaged as the world's biggest, most advanced salmon hatchery. Ronnie Tallon had already designed the company's award-winning cigarette factory – which now houses part of Dundalk Institute of Technology – in 1967. Now, on the shores of Derryclare Lough, his firm created a fully automated, computer-controlled centre laid out like the set of a James Bond movie. READ MORE The idea was to supply offshore salmon farmers with smolt (young salmon), and it worked for a time. But the site was too high up, and the costs of pumping water and of transporting the smolt by helicopter ultimately lost the enterprise millions. When the business closed it left behind extraordinary, atmospheric relics, including the long, low-lying modernist buildings, a series of large green water tanks and a jumble of industrial detritus. Interface, in the Inagh Valley Step up Alannah Robins, who since 2016 has transformed the fishery's bizarre scars into Interface , a gallery, studios and artist's residency. Taking on such a venture might seem daunting, but Robins, a graduate of the National College of Art and Design , says that 'at some point you have to dare to do it, to dare to start'. Sharing the space with separate aquaculture and scientific research projects, Interface's artists explore issues connected with science and ecology, although, Robins notes, another crucial aspect is to give artists space to realise their own projects in the extraordinary environment of the Inagh Valley. In addition to this, a major reforestation project is under way in tandem with what she describes as 'slow art' projects and an annual woodland symposium. It all has what Robins calls a magical strangeness. Lindar Schirmer at the Interface woodland symposium in 2023 In a model she discovered while living and working in Sweden, Interface is a place where artists can work through ideas, move their practice forward, experiment and exhibit without getting stuck in the cumbersome system of application and rejection that is a daily reality for most. Artists can use the former egg-hatching spaces, and even the old industrial fridges, for exhibitions, as Jo Kimmins did most recently with her Aquacious show in May. Wider projects expand over the entire site, including the water tanks, which have seen choirs, dance and sculptural installations use the pick of the abandoned infrastructure and mechanical bits and bobs, a great deal of which is still strewn about. The studio spaces are vital. As artists are increasingly forced out of cities by the lack of affordable places to live and work, rural provision is more important than ever, and Galway International Arts Festival makes for an ideal time to go and explore. Now a regular part of the festival's artistic programme, this year's Interface exhibition has been curated by the former Interface resident Valeria Ceregini. This Too Will Pass takes its title from Richard Long's work of the same name. 'It resonated with me,' Ceregini says, expanding on the idea that, although we often use the phrase to see us through hard times, the balance of nature is passing too, before our eyes. This Too Will Pass, by Richard Long. Photograph courtesy of the artist Maladjusted 1, by Thomas Brezing She also quotes another phrase, this time the Irish proverb 'Bíonn siúlach scéalach', or 'a walk is a story' – which is true, if only we remember to think and look. Beside Long, Ceregini is showing work by Thomas Brezing, Naomi Draper, Aisling Dunne, Darran McGlynn and Katherine Sankey. There will also be performances by Ceara Conway and by Luke Casserly, with his sublime meditation on the bog lands, Distillation . [ Distillation review: This ode to our landscape will give you a new perspective on Ireland's bogs, writes Eanna Ní Lamhna Opens in new window ] Conway is an artist and vocalist; her performance, Incant, builds on work developed with Ormston House in Limerick, and arising from her own residency at Interface, where, she says, 'I really responded to the landscape. It's beautiful but also bleak. The Sitka spruce, they look like skeletons to me.' Now, working with the musicians Matthew Nolan and Lisa Dowdall, she will perform her haunting vocals to her films from previous years. 'It is a way of working that goes deeper,' she says. 'It lets me slow down and really sit with the work.' It also leads to an intriguing layering of time as past, present and possible futures connect. 'I'm mostly pessimistic at the moment,' Ceregini says. 'But I can find hope in the works of the artists. There is a positivity in seeing things differently. Even just a small action can make a difference.' With support from the Arts Council and Galway County Council , Interface – – is run on a membership system, and Robins is raising funds to build more studios on the shores of the lake. This Too Will Pass opens at Interface Inagh, Recess, Co Galway, on Saturday, July 12th FUNERAL FOR ASHES At Funeral for Ashes, at Festival Printworks Gallery in Galway, you will able to walk this year among the ghosts of a dying forest. Three-dimensional scans of Irish ash trees, mosses, fallen branches, leaves and loam hover in hues of green, brown and silvered pixels, as haunting music plays. 'Every movement you make has an impact,' explains Conor Maloney, who has created the immersive installation with his fellow artist John Conneely. [ Disease set to wipe out 90% of Ireland's ash trees is a 'national emergency' - expert review Opens in new window ] Conneely steps into the space and demonstrates, raising an arm. As he does, the outlines of ancient tree bark diffuse into ghosts, scattering in the digital air. 'Stand still,' he says, 'and things will resolve.' Even as a work in progress at the University of Galway's Centre for Creative Technologies, where the development studio is a landscape of wires, cables, monitors, speakers and keyboards, the effect is mesmerising. Funeral for Ashes, by John Conneely and Conor Maloney 'Ireland has the worst forest coverage, the fewest trees, of any European country, barring Iceland,' Conneely says, noting that Iceland has the excuse of all those lava floes. 'We have just 11 per cent, and of that only about 1.5 per cent is native woodlands. The rest is Sitka spruce.' 'Ash,' Maloney says, 'was revered by the Celts. Under Brehon Law the penalty for felling an ash tree would have been the same as it was for murdering the chief of a tribe.' He goes on to describe the ancient use of ash in making druidic staffs, and its continuing use for hurleys. 'Arguably, colonialism destroyed the culture that revered the trees,' Maloney says, 'but at the same time we have to take agency for the way we're treating our own woodlands now. The stewardship of our native woodlands has been in the hands of what is effectively a logging company. And the ash-dieback disease came from importing infected trees.' 'Spend time in a native woodland forest and you understand how trees can make you feel,' Conneely says, describing the walks the pair took as research in some of Ireland's remaining old-growth forests. 'It makes you feel like you're a child again, climbing over fallen branches, touching the trunks. Everyone should do it, as often as they can.' He has composed music that develops with the movement of the piece at 432 Hertz, which some people regard as 'the frequency of the universe. It has a measurable effect on your sensibilities – when I was putting it all together I was way more chilled out ...' 'There is an argument that nothing is ever dead in the forest,' Conneely says; he gives as an example the layer of mycelium that facilitates what he describes as 'data transfer' between plants. The pair talk about the music that can be generated from the electromagnetic frequencies of plants, and how researchers are using fungal moulds to explore how to map more effective networks. We lose more than we think when we lose our forests. [ From the archive: Michael Viney – The secret life in my handful of garden soil Opens in new window ] In the final days before the exhibition opens, the pair are tweaking the programming so that people will have to work together to orchestrate their own experience of the piece, for better or worse. Artworks that include an opportunity to destroy enact a strange pull. I am reminded of teamLab's work The World of Irreversible Change , from 2022, which created a rich world, peopled with busy figures against an exotically beautiful landscape. Touching the figures 'annoys' them. Repeated touching causes fights to break out, followed by war, which will destroy the world of the art work entirely. The desire to touch is almost impossible to resist. Funeral for Ashes is more forgiving. 'There are opportunities to create and destroy within this piece,' Maloney says. 'But everyone needs to co-ordinate to do it. If there's a room full of people, they're going to need to figure out how to bring things back together.' Funeral for Ashes opens at Festival Printworks Gallery, Galway, on Monday, July 14th OTHER FESTIVAL VISUAL-ART HIGHLIGHTS David Mach: Burning Down the House The Second Homeowner's Nightmare, by David Mach You could say this is the conclusion of a trilogy by David Mach at Galway International Arts Festival, except this will actually be the Scottish artist's fourth Giaf extravaganza. It is, however, his third go at smashing up stuff, following the wrecked yacht, car and caravan, buried in a jagged rip in the gallery floor, for Rock'n'Roll, in 2018; and his exploding Range Rover in The Oligarch's Nightmare , in 2023. This time a holiday cottage is aflame. Struck by a bolt of lightning or burned out by disgruntled locals sick of the disproportionately wealthy's rapacious greed ravening our housing stock? You decide. Festival Gallery, William Street, Galway, July 14th-27th Hazel O'Sullivan: Atomic Atomic, by Hazel O'Sullivan Need your geometric fix after Evie Hone and Mainie Jellett at the National Gallery of Ireland? Hazel O'Sullivan, recipient of a festival Elevate bursary, adds a dose of retrofuturism, a little bit of mythology and a twist of Galway's landscapes. It's a bit like back to the future in sculpture and paint. Outset Gallery, St Augustine Street, July 14th-27th Kat Austen: Not Breaking. This Wave Drowns Hate Not Breaking. This Wave Drowns Hate, by Kat Austen Internationally renowned, Kat Austen creates environments that bring you into other worlds, with a little help from sound, light and AI. This time she's exploring our dying oceans, so expect sculptural lighthouses and projected scenes in which to experience an imagined future where humans and oceans support one another. Bailey Allen Hall, University of Galway, July 14th-27th Eman Mohammed: What Lies Beneath the Rubble One of Eman Mohammed's photographs from What Lies Beneath the Rubble The award-winning Palestinian photojournalist Eman Mohammed has spent her career documenting life under the Israeli occupation. Her powerful photo essays are the result of time exploring, understanding and documenting the complexities of often overlooked stories amid unspeakable carnage. O'Donoghue Centre, University of Galway, July 14th-27th Galway International Arts Festival runs from Saturday, July 12th, until Sunday, July 27th; all exhibitions are free; tickets are required for some talks and associated events; accessibility programmes, including touch tours, audio guides and relaxed hours with dimmed lights and low sounds, are available for selected exhibitions. The festival website has details of locations, timings and dates
Irish Times
an hour ago
- Irish Times
How to bid wisely at auctions: ‘An emotional decision is rarely a wise decision'
Bidding at auctions used to sometimes be like a game of smoke and mirrors, as various parties would feign a lack of interest in certain items until the moment when they decided to pursue something vigorously. The auctioneer needed to be well versed in the various bidding styles as individuals would raise a finger or a catalogue or even touch their ear as a gesture to indicate they were bidding on a certain item. Nowadays, with online auctions to the fore – either live or timed – the bidding game has become a more subdued affair. Watching screens doesn't quite replace the frisson of excitement in a room full of people competing to buy a piece of furniture or jewellery or a painting. 'We find that timed auctions are working extremely well for us,' says Robert Usher of Usher Auctions in Kells, Co Meath. We are getting very positive feedback from long-time auction goers and clients about how the timed sales allow them a lot more ease of bidding, while never missing a lot. We have exponentially increased the number of bidders by having our auction online,' says Robert Usher, of Usher Auctions in Kells, Co Meath. Its timed antique and collectible auction is now live, with bidding ending from 6pm on Monday, July 7th. Moonstruck, a ceramic sculpture by Kells-based sculptor Ann Meldon Hugh (€300-€500) at Usher's timed online auction In a timed auction, each lot has a specific finish time. 'So lot 1 will close at 6pm on Monday, and each lot will finish 15 seconds after that,' says Usher. If you are interested in a piece, you can bid early and leave a maximum bid. If your highest bid at a point when the item is timed down is lower than your maximum bid, you will get the piece for that price. READ MORE 'If the item goes over your maximum bid, you are out of the game. But you will get an email to say that you have been outbid. And at that point, if you are keeping a close check on your email, you can rejoin the bidding by setting another maximum or making a one-off bid.' Alternatively, prospective buyers can wait until the last five minutes before the item is timed out and bid then. 'It gets very busy at this point, but if there are a few bidders, the time is extended by five minutes to allow underbidders to come back in,' says Usher, whose auction includes furniture from Glendalough House in Co Wicklow. The only risk with this approach is that if you are interested in another item very close in the catalogue, you might miss it unless you have put in an early bid on it. The other form of online auction is the live online auction, where the auctioneer is on the rostrum with his/her gavel, proceeding through the lots in the same way, except without a roomful of people bidding. Diamond 46-stone tennis bracelet (€8,000-€12,000) at Matthews Sapphire and diamond cluster set link bracelet (€4,000-€7,000) at Matthews Art Deco diamond round cut bracelet (€20,000-€30,000) at Matthews Diamond pave clutter set bracelet (€12,000-€18,000) at Matthews Damian Matthews, also in Kells, Co Meath, is holding a two-day online auction of jewellery, gold, silver and silver bullion on Sunday, July 6th and Monday, July 7th. As well as a great selection of rings, silver and pocket watches, the auction includes some fine bracelets. These include a diamond 46-stone tennis bracelet (€8,000-€12,000). This simple yet sophisticated bracelet was previously known as a diamond line bracelet or eternity bracelet until tennis champion, Chris Evert, broke hers during the 1978 US Open. Evert paused the game so that she could retrieve the scattered jewels, and since then, the understated yet stylish piece of jewellery has been called a tennis bracelet. As you can imagine, people often do get carried away if they are particularly drawn to a piece of jewellery, but Matthews's advice to potential buyers is to keep their emotions out of the transaction. 'An emotional decision is rarely a wise decision. When bidding at auction, try to dissociate yourself emotionally, otherwise you're playing the auctioneer's game,' he says. 'And at the end of the day, the auctioneer works for the vendor, not the buyer.' He also advises people to bid slowly so as not to make any mistakes. 'Watch the form, listen to what is being said and how many bidders there are,' he says. Lola Hynes from O'Reilly's Auction Rooms on Francis Street, Dublin, says attending an auction in person is still preferable. 'Our live online auctions are open to the public and if you are in the room, you can offer a smaller increment when bidding than the increments programmed into the computer,' she says. 'There is also the human element, as auctioneers like real people in front of them.' Buyers also need to be aware that the hammer price – the amount the piece is sold for at the auction – is not the final price, as auctioneer's fees are then added to the price the buyer pays. Usher says that auctioneers' fees for buying and selling don't vary too much. Generally, for buying, he says they are between 18 per cent and 22 per cent plus VAT, admin, etc. For selling, fees are between 10 per cent and 18 per cent plus VAT and other fees, depending on the auction house. Most auctioneers do however advise people to go see the items in person before an auction, rather than just relying on online catalogues. 'There is a great atmosphere in the auction rooms in the days before an auction. We are there to help answer questions about estimates and reserves [when an item won't be sold below a certain price],' says Usher. He also believes that viewing items beforehand can give people a greater sense of which items might work well together. 'It's about looking at each item, thinking about what it's worth to you. There is no ticker tape for auctions,' says Matthews. , , What did it sell for? Princess Diana's 'caring' dress. Photograph: Joe Maher/Getty Princess Diana's 'caring' dress Estimate $200,000-$300,000 Hammer price $520,000 (€445,000) Auction house Julian's A display including Princess Diana's peach straw archer-style hat by John Boyd. Photograph: Aaron Chown/PA Photos Princess Diana John Boyd straw hat Estimate $20,000-$40,000 Hammer price $26,000 (€22,000) Auction house Julian's Princess Diana Falcon Evening Gown, left. Photograph: Aaron Chown/PA Princess Diana Catherine Walker falcon evening gown Estimate $200,000-$300,000 Hammer price $455,000 (€388,000) Auction house Julian's Venice, the Return of the Bucintoro on Ascension Day, Canaletto. Photograph: Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Venice, the Return of the Bucintoro on Ascension Day, Canaletto Estimate £20m-plus Hammer price £31.9m (€37.2m) Auction house Christie's
Irish Independent
3 hours ago
- Irish Independent
‘Irish working mothers are at a significant financial disadvantage' – unions back calls for full year's maternity leave
It is now official Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu) policy, after a motion calling for 52 weeks of maternity pay north and south of the border was adopted by delegates at its biennial conference this week. The motion said current maternity pay arrangements fall short of international best practice. Tabled by the British Fire Brigades Union, it claimed there is a 'postcode lottery' effect where workers in some regions and sectors get markedly inferior benefits. Workers and self-employed individuals in the Republic of Ireland are entitled to a social welfare maternity benefit payment of €289 per week for 26 weeks. Some employers top up the entitlement. Employer group Isme supported measures to provide women with paid maternity leave, but said it should be supported by the social fund. Bulgaria offers approximately 58.6 weeks (410 days) of paid maternity leave 'Obviously a year's salary for someone not attending work would not be sustainable for the vast majority of employers, therefore this type of measure must be underwritten by the social fund,' said chief executive Neil McDonnell. He said Bulgaria offers approximately 58.6 weeks (410 days) of paid maternity leave. Mr McDonnell said 90pc of the mother's full salary is paid from its National Health Insurance Fund. 'Employers would not welcome an increase in PRSI, obviously, but if asked to pay for long-term maternity leave, it would be the only way to do so,' he said. 'A creche with four childminders or a hairdresser with five stylists could not afford to pay someone for a year who was not working. This is very obvious, and everyone including Ictu knows this.' Ictu spokesperson Laura Bambrick said the move would entail a hike in PRSI for workers, the self-employed and employers. She said Ireland compares very favourably to EU countries in terms of the duration of paid maternity leave benefits, at 26 weeks. 'But when comparing the payment rates for maternity benefit, Irish working mothers are at a significant financial disadvantage,' she said. Ms Bambrick said maternity benefit at €289 a week for 26 weeks (€7,514) is equivalent to just over nine weeks' full pay for the average employee nationwide. It is worth just under eight weeks for an employee in Dublin, where average gross pay is higher (€49,500) than the national average (€42,100), according to Revenue data. "For a full-time worker on the minimum wage (€526), maternity benefit replaces little over half their weekly wage,' she said. Unions will be holding their feet to the fire to deliver on these important work-life balance measures Ms Bambrick welcomed Programme for Government commitments on pay-related family leave. 'Unions will be holding their feet to the fire to deliver on these important work-life balance measures for working families,' she said. A Department of Children, Disabliity and Equality spokesperson said family leave entitlements have increased significantly over the past years. She said a 'Whole-of-Government Strategy for Babies, Young Children and their Families' commits that by 2028, parents in Ireland will be supported to look after their babies at home for the whole of their first year through a combination of paid family leave schemes. She said the combined durations of maternity, paternity and parent's leave and benefit now equate to 46 weeks' paid leave for a two-parent family.
