Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity)

Over 1,000 workers have been left in a desperate situation by Fastway Couriers going into receivership. These are direct workers and workers from franchisees. They have all been left being owed back pay or a back month of pay.

They are owed wages. They should be owed redundancy. They are now struggling to pay bills and mortgages. However, they have been told they are effectively locked out for a month from accessing social welfare. They have been told they are still legally working for Fastway for 30 days from the point at which the receivership was announced but they will not get paid until the new year. The kicker is they cannot claim social welfare benefits in those 30 days and if they seek to claim social welfare benefits or they even start new employment, they would lose any redundancy entitlements.

They are left in a terrible limbo situation in the run up to Christmas. They want the Government to intervene. The first ask is whether the relevant Ministers will meet with those workers and then work with the Department of Social Protection to ensure they get what they need.

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