Unions demand wage boost for voluntary staff

Ireland's largest trade unions are coming together this morning to pressurise the Government into boosting wages for 64,000 workers in the voluntary sector.

SIPTU, IMPACT and ICTU are holding a conference to call for wage increases for community activists working with the homeless and alcohol and drug addicts.

They say a lot of these workers are living hand to mouth because of their poor wages.

IMPACT's Bernard Harbour said: “What IMPACT is saying to government, and we’ve been saying it for some time, is you need to fund community services on a long-term basis so they can plan and develop services.

“And you have to include in that funding, money to pay for the increases in voluntary and community sector staff, the same increases that everybody else gets under the national agreements.

"Those are the two messages coming out of the conference today,” he concluded.