Stark differences in impact of pandemic on workers according to report

Ireland responded to the Covid-19 pandemic with a “dramatic expansion of the welfare state” but this was not initially matched by intervention in working conditions, a new report has found.

Although many essential workers were protected by union representation and social recognition, in some “extreme cases of residential care homes and meat factories” conditions of immigrant workers in vulnerable employment were found to have deteriorated.

The findings are contained in an analysis of Ireland produced for the European Parliament, looking at the experience of essential workers with a focus on women and migrant workers in low-paid, frontline occupations.

Produced by James Wickham, a professor emeritus in sociology at Trinity College Dublin (TCD), it focused on the period to autumn 2021 through a combination of newspaper reports and interviews with employment experts and stakeholders.

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Prof Wickham noted that while Ireland has no statutory sick pay, the availability of an enhanced illness benefit for those off work from Covid-19 became available from 2020, while free medical care and testing were also available. Childcare for essential workers was also expanded.

“The response to the pandemic therefore was a dramatic expansion of the welfare state, but this was not initially matched by any intervention in employment conditions,” he concluded.

While health precautions in residential homes and meat factories were eventually increased, he said, underlying employment conditions of immigrant workers remained the same.

The report found that horticultural workers continued to be imported from within the EU and that many health precautions including social distancing were not enforced. By contrast, in non-essential retail, public-facing employment conditions improved. Conditions deteriorated for couriers despite increased demand, it said.

“Like nursing homes, meat factories were epicentres of the pandemic. Meat plants continued to import labour from outside the EU. The high incidence of the disease was exacerbated by poor working conditions, shared accommodation and common travel to work. Without union representation, workers here were voiceless.”

Much like horticulture, the report noted that workers in nursing homes and hospitals were imported, the former settings being “breeding grounds for the disease”, while there was a lack of visibility, sick pay, childcare, and training and with crowded living conditions.

“Healthcare workers in hospitals were mostly in regular employment, able to voice their concerns through representative organisations and their work was clearly socially visible and recognised.”

Essential workers were overwhelmingly female and disproportionately immigrants, while more than half had children. In the hospitality sector, largely closed during the pandemic, low pay and “precarious employment” were also found to be characteristic, although not for everyone.

In healthcare, many workers were in regular employment but low pay was common in many areas such as healthcare assistants in nursing homes, almost entirely female with many immigrants. Precarious employment, the employment of a high proportion of immigrants and low pay were also characteristic of meat factories.

Responding to the report, Sinn Féin spokeswoman on workers’ rights, Louise O’Reilly, said it exposed as false “the government narrative that ‘we are all in this together’”.

“The comprehensive report highlighted how already existing issues, such a lack of statutory sick pay, a living wage, and affordable childcare services, exacerbated the pandemic for many essential workers,” she said.