Covid pandemic has proven how frontline and important employees are underestimated, says President Michael D Higgins
The Covid pandemic has proven how frontline workers and those providing essential services are being underestimated in our society, President Michael D Higgins has actually said.
ddressing the biennial conference of trade union Fórsa, Mr Higgins stated the pandemic has actually provided a once-in-a-generation chance to “produce a society that is more equal, one in which all work is valued, and all tasks are good, satisfying and protect”.
Mr Higgins questioned how, as a nation, we got ourselves into a position where so little value was placed on vital work and the contribution of essential employees.
” From this demonstrably failed, disconnected model of economy, we should liberate ourselves, change it by making a new balance in between economy, ecology, society and culture.
” We are all accountable for what we understand and pick to overlook, from which we avoid our gaze.
” How hugely regrettable it would be, what a lost opportunity, if, through some type of evasion or moral cowardice, we as a society were to continue to overlook the efforts of these women and men, our essential workers, that, having actually paid them fitting homage for putting themselves and their families at risk for us all, we were to opt for reverting to where we were before the crisis.”
The President spoke about the devastating effect the pandemic has had socially, personally and financially.
He implicated some federal governments and employers throughout the world of utilizing the coronavirus crisis “in an insidious and opportunistic way” to limit the rights of working people by disrupting the right to strike and leaving out workers from participation in the economy through their unions.
” We continue to witness boosts in precarious employment, agreement working, and a continuous casualisation of labour, with new and emerging trends in work practices that are typically deemed ‘developments’ insofar as they provide brand-new ways to increase revenues for companies, however in their useful shipment reveal the ongoing disintegration of workers’ hard-won labour rights,” he stated.
” The pandemic has plainly revealed, too, how extremely mobile employees who frequently move within, or in and out of, the European Union are irreplaceable throughout a public health crisis, yet they often stay the least protected.
” May I suggest that the Covid-19 pandemic can be finest viewed as offering us a way for us all to rediscover the significance of the social, recuperate or find the experience of life beyond an immiserating individualism, to make society more just and inclusive.”
Mr Higgins said that online employees are frequently not covered by the most basic employment law agreements, but said the move towards digitalisation might not be entirely unfavorable “if used within a social-economic design”.
The President said a more democratic and activist State is needed to meet the challenges presented by the Covid pandemic.
Online Editors
Comments
Post a Comment