Sir, – Less than three weeks ago in your newspaper Kathy Sheridan warned that "the 'emergency' two-tier pay system is in danger of becoming a post-recession norm" ("Nurses, teachers, gardaí who feel undervalued and underpaid", April 9th).
This week, therefore, it was with dismay that I read there will be "lower pay rates for new entrants" to the non-driver grade of Luas staff ("Luas strike to go ahead after talks end without agreement", April 25th).
These workers will be joining the teachers and gardaí as the newest victims of Ireland’s two-tier pay scales.
Putting opinions aside for a moment on the rationality or otherwise of the rates of pay demanded, the fact is that an agreement has been made between non-driver Luas staff and their employer Transdev which means that post-2016 workers will receive less pay than pre-2016 workers for doing the same job. What is not good enough for the current non-driver grades is apparently good enough for the future non-driver grades.
As Sheridan warned, the risk of two-tier pay systems becoming par for the course is real, and is advanced each time another faceless future group of workers gets sacrificed. This does not bode well for younger generations, like my own, who are trying to build themselves a bright future in a fair Ireland. – Yours, etc,
SINÉAD O’LOGHLIN,
Dalkey,
Co Dublin.