Irish workers earn 6% less than the average European employee, despite our economy being 16% richer than the EU norm.

There are fresh hopes that the Waterford Crystal pension dispute could be resolved before it goes to High Court next year.

Unite’s Brian Gallagher was handed a poisoned chalice when negotiating job cuts with Aviva, but the union official scored a victory by cutting the number of redundancies and securing 220 jobs for Galway, writes Kyran Fitzgerald