Calls for 5% pay hikes for workers

The leader of the country’s largest trade union will today announce a campaign for 5% pay rises across the economy and for the introduction of a minimum "living" wage of €11.45 across a number of sectors.

In a speech to be given at Glasnevin Cemetery today, Jack O’Connor will also say Siptu members will engage in a “national campaign to apply pressure on the Government to commence the task of abolishing the universal social charge”.

The Siptu leader will say that, in place of USC, the campaign will seek what he calls a “new mechanism” which, he says, “will be equally efficient as a means of raising revenue from the better off while removing the burden on those on low to middle incomes”.