New Events

National

no events posted in last week

Community Workers Call for Support

category national | worker & community struggles and protests | news report author Thursday July 04, 2013 15:27author by Darragh O'Connor - SIPTU Community Campaignauthor email doconnor at siptu dot ie Report this post to the editors

Petition Phil Hogan to Respect Workers

Workers in Local Development Companies are campaigning to protect jobs and make Minister Phil Hogan engage with their union. You can support them by signing the petition here: http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/minister-phil-hog...nment
SIPTU Community Members on the March
SIPTU Community Members on the March

Minister Phil Hogan is attempting to push through an alignment between Local Development Companies (LDC) and Local Authorities. LDCs deliver a range of programmes including Community Development, LEADER, Local Employment Services, Community Employment, TUS, Jobs Club, Training and Education.

Workers face an uncertain future as the Minister refuses to say if the rural “LEADER” programme will be delivered by LDCs in the future. Indeed, some LDC have been forced to plan redundancies next year.

Despite the Minister's desire to radically change the community and development sector, he continues to refuse to talk to workers or address their issues.

As part of the campaign to make the Minister enter talks & protect jobs, SIPTU members will be delivering a petition to the Minister.

You can support your colleagues in the Community Sector by signing the petition above.

Your support would be greatly appreciated by the workers involved.

In Solidarity,

SIPTU LDC Shop Stewards Committee

Related Link: http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/minister-phil-hogan-respect-ldc-workers-and-meet-our-union-on-alignment
author by davepublication date Thu Jul 04, 2013 17:02author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Are they like FAS jobs and jobbridge jobs?Don't they rob what could be a paid job from the community.

I've seen companies advertising for freebie community workers as opposed to forking out for paid workers.

Its a jobs scam i would like to see be closed down,robbing jobs from the most vunerable is a most shameful act.

author by Darragh O'Connor - SIPTU Community Campaign publication date Fri Jul 05, 2013 11:26author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Hi Rob,

These are not Job Bridge or internships positions, these are real jobs done that are done by qualified workers.

They do a huge range of work in local communities, in 2011 LDCs helped over 98,000 jobseekers, LEADER helped create 634 full-time jobs and 1,644 enterprises were assisted.

They also do a lot of work tackling poverty and supporting local communities tackle the problems they face.

http://changingireland.ie/ is a good resource to see what's going on in the sector.

Darragh

author by Community Worker - Local Development Company publication date Fri Mar 14, 2014 12:05author address author phone Report this post to the editors

As a worker who has a masters level professional qualification in this area , i feel that Big Phil is undervaluing the work and skills that are proven in Local Development Companies. Many of my colleagues are similarly qualified and our work is not something that can be done be the nearest do gooder .Big Phill has LIED to us about alignment , he never had any intention of aligning the local development companies and staff who have taken these insecure and low paid jobs to help the disadvantaged when others were on the celtic tigers back. Big Phil was only aligning the funding not the work and now he has left many of us awake at night worrying how we will pay our bills and feed our families because he wont meet with us or discuss us with our unions Suddenly we are a private company and he feels no responsibility .Its a shame among many shames , What happens to the people in the communities who are marginalised ? Who cares about them ? this is all about getting his hands on Leader money so he can try and fill the holes in local authorities , will someone not tell him that it cant be used for the pot holes.