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Court ruling will hit low paid workers A HIGH Court
decision to set aside pay rises of up to 9 per cent has been branded a
major blow for some of Ireland’s worst-paid workers.
The country’s biggest trade union said the Labour Court system that
sets wages for up to 250,000 workers was now in disarray following the
legal action taken by hotel employers.
And union SIPTU warned the High Court ruling could have serious implications
for thousands of workers in other sectors.
Its comments came after the High Court quashed an employment regulation
which would have given wage rises to hotel workers working outside Dublin
and Cork after the Government conceded there was a problem with the procedures
under which it was drawn up.
It means up to 25,000 employees in the hotel industry will lose a maximum
increase of 22 cents an hour.
The average pay rise would have been between 5 per cent and 9 per cent.
Data goes missing
HACKERS are targeting Irish Government departments for sensitive information.
More than 80 Government laptops have been reported stolen or missing raising
fears about the protection of confidential data.
Four Government websites have also recently suffered cyber-attacks.
The revelations follow recent controversies in Britain over the loss of
laptops from the Ministry of Defence and discs containing personal data
of millions of people.
But Irish Government officials stressed no sensitive or confidential information
was involved in the loss of the laptops.
The incidents also include the loss or theft of 19 Blackberrys and 10
memory keys.
Inflation down
INFLATION fell in Ireland during January to the lowest level recorded
in more than a year.
But the cost of living is still rising with consumers facing higher hospital
charges, mortgage costs and increases across a range of basic food items.
The Consumer Price Index recorded a slight drop of 0.5 per cent in January
with inflation falling to 4.3 per cent.
But figures revealed the cost of healthcare rose by 3 per cent during
the month with an increase of 9 per cent recorded for hospital services.
The cost of food stuffs rose by less than 1 per cent but over the 12-month
period the increase amounted to 7 per cent.
One of the main factors behind the drop in inflation was the annual sales
bonanza which meant a drop of 13 per cent in clothing prices. |
