109,000 fewer in full-time employment since 2008

Precarious work is “pervasive”, with 109,000 fewer workers in full-time, permanent employment in 2016 than in 2008, according to a study by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions.

One in two, or 70,500 of those workers in temporary employment last year, said they were in the roles because they could not find permanent work — a 179% increase on 2008.

The ICTU report, to be published later today, also shows a 34% rise in the category of “part-time, self-employed without employees”, since 2008, a rise which, it says, is indicative of significant growth in bogus or false self-employment.

ICTU also said its report found that a loss of workplace rights over recent years, along with official policies — such as reducing employers’ PRSI on low-paid work — had made it easier and more profitable to hire workers on temporary, insecure contracts.

Such work practices, ICTU said, impact negatively on workers, in terms of lower living standards and inability to access secure accommodation, and exposed them to health problems.

The trade union body’s general secretary, Patricia King, said the report confirmed that there was now “an urgent necessity for government to address this problem decisively through legislation, once and for all”.