A SOCIAL welfare tribunal will hear the case of up to 400 Irish Life workers who have been on strike for the past 10 weeks. The hearing, on May 22nd, will decide whether the workers should receive social welfare benefits the Minister of State for Social Welfare, Mr Bernard Durkan, said.
He was replying to Ms Mary O'Rourke, Fianna Fail spokeswoman on enterprise and employment, in an adjournment debate. Ms O'Rourke said the only income that the 350 to 400 Irish Life workers had was a union stipend of £30 a week. She called on the Minister for Social Welfare, Mr De Rossa, to take immediate action to assist the Irish Life workers in the same way that he had helped the former Irish Press workers and Dunnes Stores workers.
There had to be a reason for the dispute when the workers were out on strike for so long, she said. The Government was talking about the "Celtic Tiger" economy and how everybody was doing so well. "There are large numbers of people not doing well."
Ms O'Rourke added that it was a disgrace that 10 weeks had gone by and each Government Minister had said that "it's not my business".
Mr Durkan said that at the start of the dispute between the MSF union and Irish Life, the Department had been in touch with both sides and a "test" case of one employee was considered to establish whether the workers should be entitled to social welfare. The employee was disqualified from benefits for as long as the "work stoppage" continued.
It was open to the workers to appeal the decision, the Minister of State said, but this did not happen. Social welfare legislation allowed for applicants to go straight to a tribunal rather than appeal against a decision.