A LAST-DITCH attempt to protect existing workers from the €1 an hour cut to the minimum wage was successfully blocked by the Government.

THE retention of the 12.5% rate of corporation tax and expansion of business investment schemes are the key features of the budget’s enterprise strategy.

MIGRANT workers should have the right to change employers without fear of losing their work permit, according a new poll.

THERE are “undoubtedly many poor public servants” and their days are “numbered”, Labour Affairs Minister Dara Calleary has said.

ON a day that farmers were warned of the need for increased care in and around farms, the rural community lost another life following a tragic accident in West Cork.

THERE was a 25% reduction in the number of workplace deaths in 2009, according to the Health and Safety Authority’s latest annual report.

The Health and Safety Authority has recorded the lowest number of workplace deaths since it began operating more than 20 years ago.

FARMERS have been urged to take extra care with machinery and other activities as they enter a traditional busy period.

OVER the last 12 months, the National Employment Rights Authority recovered €2.5m in owed wages for 6,000 workers who were not paid their statutory minimum entitlements by their employers.

The Government is to allow the minimum wage not be paid in certain sectors of the economy.

SIPTU vice-president Brendan Hayes has been named deputy chairman of the Labour Court just three months after he was forced to issue a circular to the union’s 200,000 members denying he had been offered the €150,000 per-year post.

Union leaders and government officials return to the talks table this morning as the prospect of job cuts in the public sector increases.

THE number of cases referred to the Labour Relations Commission’s conciliation service doubled in the first nine months of this year compared to the same period in 2008.

IT WAS a tough summer for the farming community, President Mary McAleese acknowledged yesterday when she officially opened the ploughing championships in Athy, Co Kildare.

AFTER legal challenges by employers in a number of sectors, the Government has moved to secure binding industry employment agreements governing worker terms and conditions.

THE number of parents refused a grant towards the cost of caring for a disabled child has almost tripled since the Department of Social and Family Affairs (DoFSA) took over the scheme from the Health Service Executive (HSE).

The Minister for Labour Affairs has said the systems setting statutory wages may need to be "rebalanced".

IRELAND can now draw money from the €375 million European Social Fund for training and education without having to put in matching funds this year and next, the European Commission announced.

AN African-born man conceded yesterday there was a continuing “tension” between Irish and some foreign drivers within Cork’s taxi ranks.

ONE of the country’s best-known taxi drivers has denied his association is racist and refusing membership to foreign nationals because of their skin colour.

AFTER successfully disrupting Government agencies and departments yesterday, lower paid civil servants are to begin a campaign of locally based work protests on March 9.

THE Government has confirmed it is reviewing the work permit system in light of the economic downturn.

A SPOKESMAN for the 477 workers who are to lose their jobs at the Banta RR Donnelly plant in Limerick said yesterday they were “pretty happy” with the redundancy package offered.

THE number of people killed in farming-related accidents last year was described by the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) yesterday as “shocking and unacceptable”.

A CALL for increased vigilance on farms was made yesterday by Labour Affairs Minister Billy Kelleher when he launched a farm safety action plan in Dublin.

THE country’s largest trade union has claimed companies are being tipped off about Health and Safety Authority inspections allowing them to correct unsafe or illegal practices before detection.

Taoiseach Brian Cowen today insisted Ireland must continue to attract foreign investment, as he welcomed 390 jobs to the south and south-east regions.

A SAFETY training programme for farmers is to restart next month, it was announced at the National Ploughing Championships.

MORE people have died in farming-related accidents this year than in all of 2007, it was revealed yesterday.

THE number of work-related deaths, which in 2007 jumped by almost a third to 67, is among the highest in the European Union, warned the Health and Safety Authority.

Worker safety is vital to life and limb, but the latest figures released yesterday by the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) provides cold comfort.

The number of work-related deaths in 2007 jumped by almost a third to 67, the Health & Safety Authority said today.

FARM safety presents challenges common to the whole island, a north-south conference was told in Monaghan yesterday.

A cross-border seminar in Co Monaghan today is set to discuss ways to improve safety and reduce accidents on Irish farms.

THE first all-island farm safety conference will be officially opened in Monaghan today by Labour Affairs Minister Billy Kelleher.

A NEW agreement on pay and conditions between Drimbawn Mushrooms and SIPTU was hailed yesterday as an example for others to follow.

THE Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) has demanded the Government back the EU-wide code of practice for agency workers, which it has been blocking along with just three other countries.

Strict new rules to protect domestic workers from exploitation were published today.

SIPTU is to start naming and shaming employment agencies which are exploiting migrant workers in industries across the country.

The Government has failed to decentralise 8,000 civil servants, writes Stephen Rogers in Ennis.

A TOTAL of 7,352 working days were lost through strike action by workers across the country last year — the lowest since records began in 1923.

The Health and Safety Authority has published a new code of practice on how workers and employers should tackle bullying in the workplace.

ALMOST 160,000 people claimed they were the victims of repeated bullying in the workplace during a six-month study by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).

WORKERS in offices, shops and factories were yesterday urged to take time to balance the increasingly hectic demands of work with the need for a good home life.