Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

I want to speak about working conditions at our airports because right around the world, the airline industry and airports are using the pandemic to tear up workers' contracts and their terms and conditions. Unfortunately, it is no different in Ireland.

The workers I am most familiar with are the DAA workers. They have been faced with a semi-State company which has used the coronavirus to attempt to impose the document known as New Ways of Working. That means significant changes to peoples' rosters. It means so-called interoperability or, in other words, an ending of demarcation and a slashing of the number of staff. This is about a drive to reduce the amount of permanent, unionised and reasonably well-paid jobs and to replace them with agency and contract staff. It is illustrated clearly in how the maintenance staff in particular have been treated. They make the point that the amount of work they have to do does not change with the amount of passengers who are coming through the airport. If a lift needs to be fixed because there are two passengers in it or because there are 200 or 2,000 passengers in it, it needs to be fixed. The same goes for escalators, the runways and everything else. They are often the first responders to an emergency situation.

Those workers have bravely stood up to the bullying of management and to the threats which have been implemented to put them down to a 60% week and spread that week over five days so that the workers cannot claim jobseekers allowance for the days they are not working. They overwhelmingly rejected these proposals. I support those workers who are resisting these attacks. I urge them to continue in their resistance, to stand united, to now allow themselves to be divided and to defend and demand decent terms, conditions and wages for all workers.

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