Mandate motion to oppose cuts to lone parents unanimously supported at ICTU Conference

Wednesday 15 July 2015

Mandate Trade Union put forward an emergency motion at the ICTU Biennial Delegate Conference on Wednesday, 8 July which received unanimous support from all trade unions across Ireland.

Addressing the Conference, Mandate’s National Coordinator for Training Aileen Morrissey said:

“The main rationale put forward for cuts to the One-Parent Family Payment Scheme is to incentivize lone parents to seek more hours at work.

“However, as we know only too well from our experience in Dunnes Stores and other precarious employments in Ireland, workers have no legal right to avail of more hours at work.

She added, “Even where workers are desperate for extra hours to top up their income, in the majority of cases, workers are denied those extra hours by their employer. It becomes a case of, ‘please sir, can I have some more’, yet that usually falls on deaf ears.”

Ms Morrissey argued that these cuts being expressed as an incentive for lone-parents to seek more hours “ignores the real truth based on facts”.

Facts like:

• In Ireland, we have the second highest level of underemployed workers in the EU15 – meaning workers want more hours, they just can’t access them.
• Almost 147,000 workers put themselves in this category – many of those workers are lone-parents.
• In 2008 – only 0.4% of the total workforce said they were underemployed. Shockingly, that figure is now at more than 7%.

Ms Morrissey added, “Furthermore, the industries that lone-parents are largely employed in – like retail, hospitality, cleaning, hotels, restaurants, and others – are all low paid industries. Many of those workers earn the minimum wage, or close to it. The absence of affordable childcare makes it very difficult for families to survive – even if they had the ability to seek and avail of more hours at work. This is borne out by the statistics that show that nearly two-thirds of lone-parent households with one or more children experience deprivation.

Ms Morrissey said, “We must also remember that 98% of recipients of the One-Parent Family Payment are women. The cuts to the One-Parent Payment scheme will cause enormous hardship for some of the most vulnerable and already impoverished families in the country.

“In the absence of affordable childcare and in the absence of legislation enabling workers to seek more hours, these cuts must be seen for what they are. An attack on the living standards of lone-parents and we have an obligation to resist these cuts,” she concluded.

The full emergency motion is below:

“This Conference notes that lone parents are among the poorest in our society with a 65% deprivation rate according to the most recent EU SILC report. This means going without food, warm clothing and heating, for example.

The recent cuts to the One-Parent Payment scheme which came into effect one week ago (Thursday, 2^nd July) will see some lone parents losing between €36.50 and €86 a week. This will exacerbate poverty and deprivation levels and will cause enormous hardship for some of the most vulnerable families in Ireland.

This Conference calls on Congress to immediately commence a campaign for the restoration of the One-Parent Family Payment scheme.”

Watch Ms Morrissey address Conference here.