Government accused of ‘institutionalising new gender pay gap’

Unite writes to party leaders demanding reform of ‘inhuman regime’

Unite has today (Monday) written to party leaders demanding urgent reform of the work permit regime which will see thousands of care workers spend Christmas without their families.

Migrant health care assistants (HCAs) working in nursing homes and home care settings throughout Ireland are unable to bring their families to live with them due to the fact that their government-mandated salaries are below the family reunification earnings thresholds.

While the government-mandated minimum salary will rise in January for those on new contracts, this will only enable workers to bring their spouse to live with them since the re-unification earnings threshold increases for each additional family member, leaving families facing impossible choices.

A lack of retrospection means HCAs on existing contracts will be excluded from the increase in January, leaving many HCAs on a salary below the family reunification threshold.

Unite regional officer Michael O’Brien said: “This holiday season care workers throughout Ireland will – as they do throughout the year – be providing essential care to our elderly and vulnerable. Yet government policy means that they will be facing another cruel Christmas without their families.

“The next government needs to move immediately to raise salaries for all HCAs – including those on existing contracts – to the family reunification threshold. They also need to scrap the inhuman regime requiring workers to meet a new threshold for each family member they want to bring to live with them.”

Pointing out that well over three-quarters of care workers are female, Unite also accused the government of institutionalising a new gender pay gap by proposing a lower minimum remuneration level for HCAs than that being proposed for all other general employment permit holders. The government’s proposed ‘roadmap’ for increasing minimum remuneration thresholds for permit holders envisages that all groups except HCAs will reach a salary of €39,000 by January 2026.

Unite’s Irish secretary Susan Fitzgerald said: “Health care assistants are overwhelmingly female. The lower salary being proposed for this group of workers not only undervalues women’s work – it also reflects a persistent undervaluing of care.”