Labour leader Joan Burton has promised the minimum wage would rise by a further €2 over four years, if her party is returned to power, and dismissed claims such a move could threaten the economy.

Employment Minister Ged Nash said he wants state agencies, departments, and local authorities to pay a “living wage” as he announced a forum on special pay rates with employers in the autumn.

Fine Gael and Labour are close to agreeing an election voting pact which will see party leaders and canvassers ask voters to give their outgoing coalition colleagues their second vote in some cases.

Stories of fishing fatalities and the impact they have on loved ones left behind form part of a new children’s book that seeks to raise awareness of the dangers faced by those working on boats.

The number of people in work in the UK has reached a record 30.7 million following another fall in the jobless total there.

Australia’s highest court has denied workers’ compensation to a government employee who was injured while having sex in a hotel room during a business trip.

A major security operation is underway to prevent more trouble breaking out in Belfast later today.

The Health and Safety Authority was forced to take enforcement action in almost 1,000 of the workplaces it inspected last year, its annual report shows.

EVERYONE who is currently long-term unemployed will be either back to work or in training courses by the end of the Government’s term, the Taoiseach has pledged.

Up to 20 top business executives will attend the Northern Ireland economic investment conference in Washington DC, it was revealed today.

THE Government wants to pay bosses to extend the hours of thousands of employees working three-day weeks.

JOBS in the sex industry which could lead to exploitation will be banned from being advertised in Job centres, the British government announced yesterday.

THE Scottish Government “moved heaven and earth” to win a €9 million investment from Ryanair, the airline claimed, contrasting it to the Irish Government, which, it said, acted with “inaction and indifference”.

THE 21-page Hillsborough Agreement sets out plans for devolving policing and justice powers, dealing with contentious loyal order parades and resolving outstanding issues facing the Stormont Executive.

AS the Dáil prepares to discuss the Agency Workers’ Bill next week, it has been claimed Ireland is now the only country in Europe which has not made any move to give agency workers equal pay and treatment with their permanent colleagues.

The 21-page Hillsborough Agreement sets out plans for devolving policing and justice powers, dealing with contentious loyal order parades and resolving outstanding issues facing the Stormont Executive.

MORE than €500,000 of taxpayers’ money was wasted as part of a Fás results fixing scandal, Fine Gael last night claimed.

LESS than 72 hours after its mediation failed to resolve the pay dispute between electricians and their employers, the Government has ordered the Labour Relations Commission (LRC) to intervene for a third time.

Hundreds of extra young people could become apprentices under an ambitious new scheme, the North's Employment Minister said today.

The UK's Employment Minister Tony McNulty resigned from the British government today in the wake of controversy over his expenses.

MIGRANT workers will stage a protest in Dublin today against new work permit regulations which could leave hundreds unable to retain secure jobs.

Stormont Employment Minister Reg Empey says the North has lost 2% of its entire manufacturing base over the past four days.

The troubled SR Technics plant at Dublin Airport where 1,135 jobs are to be axed will be visited by a cross-party group of politicians, it was confirmed tonight.

THE country’s biggest craft union has said that plans by the Government to tackle the unemployment crisis for apprentices in the construction industry are welcome, but warned it falls well short of what is needed.

Almost 250 jobs were lost today as factories in Galway, Kilkenny and Limerick cut their workforce.

Taoiseach Brian Cowen today praised FÁS chief Rody Molloy for resigning and described him as an honourable public servant.

The director general of FÁS has resigned over controversies surrounding €643,000 in transatlantic travel and expenses he and his executives enjoyed during a four-year period.

The Government will be lobbying hard with Barack Obama’s new administration to keep almost 100,000 jobs in US multinationals in Ireland, it emerged tonight.

IN January this year, then Employment Minister Micheál Martin, not for the first time, said the secret to Ireland’s economic growth lay in ‘high-end’ high-skilled manufacturing rather than the traditional low-cost unskilled area.

A crunch meeting of the North's Cabinet scheduled for tomorrow looks set to be cancelled.

HUNDREDS of jobs are to go in west Waterford and east Cork following yesterday’s confirmation that the ailing Cappoquin Chickens plant is to close by the end of October.

ABOUT 450 jobs are to be created this year when two new retail and leisure areas are opened in Dundrum’s Town Centre in Dublin.

Fine Gael will use Dáil time today to raise concerns about the rising unemployment rate – the highest in seven years.

More than 20,000 people have lost their jobs since Employment Minister Michael Martin came to office in 2004, it was claimed today.

Rubbish collectors returned to work today, removing mounds of waste which had piled up on city streets during their two-week strike, a day after Greece’s parliament approved unpopular pension reforms despite widespread protests.

FOUR months ago the Government promised the heads of legislation regulating employment agencies would be introduced within a month to six weeks.

Hopes of an end to the French transport strike rose today after President Nicolas Sarkozy accepted a union offer for talks.

Union leaders in the UK today voiced “serious” concerns over the labour market as new figures showed more people have stopped looking for work, while the number of manufacturing jobs dipped below three million for the first time since modern records began.

GUIDANCE counsellors must be given more time to help young people with career and subject choices if Government targets to meet economic requirements are to be met, a conference heard yesterday.

A LANDMARK Supreme Court ruling — which found the Labour Court had acted incorrectly in a row between Ryanair and its pilots — could have major implications for how industrial disputes at companies which do not recognise trade unions are resolved.

PEOPLE who are jobless for long periods are to be coaxed back into education, training and the workplace through a range of measures designed to discourage long-term dependency on welfare.

THE RDS was buzzing yesterday with a new form of electricity: the industry, laughter and conversation of young people with science on their minds.

THE owner of a Cork shopping centre where 172 retail staff were made redundant has claimed a deal to secure the jobs was 95% complete as late as Friday evening.

Cork received a major boost today with a second jobs announcement in just two days.