Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 21 Jun 1995

Vol. 454 No. 7

Adjournment Debate. - Irish Press Journalists Social Welfare Claims.

Mr. J. Walsh

Thank you, Sir, for allowing me to raise the plight of the Irish Press journalists who since the day they were locked out by the Irish Press management on Friday, 26 May have not been in receipt of wages and are now being denied their social welfare entitlements. Irish Press Newspapers Limited had not paid out holiday or back pay owned to these journalists and the Department of Social Welfare has informed the journalist who signed on for unemployment benefit on 28 May that the Journalists are not entitled to it as they are involved in an industrial dispute. That decision is the subject of a social welfare appeal. I understand the unfortunate workers were told they would have a decision within two days of last week's appeal hearing but have not yet heard the outcome.

Exclusion from unemployment benefit because of a trade dispute has become extraneous in the case of the Irish Press journalists and, as the Minister well knows, the company is in no position to trade or offer work to the locked out journalists. I honestly believe they are being treated shabbily. The journalists involved are in a social welfare limbo. They are precluded from claiming unemployment benefit, they are being turned down by community welfare officers for assistance, any back payments owed to them by the company are frozen and even their entitlement to basic statutory redundancy is dependent on whether the company is able to pay them and, if not, they will have to wait for State payments to come through. In the meantime people have to feed their families and pay the mortgage or face the threat of losing their homes. Many families are in severe financial straits. The very basic income that the State guarantees its citizens is being denied them.

I had meetings with the group of unions at the Irish Press— last week and the Irish Press directors admitted that the dispute with journalists brought forward the liquidation of the company by only two days. Obviously they are not in a position to reopen the newspapers without a substantial injection of capital. On 3 June the company announced it was meeting its shareholders to discuss whether it would start the process of liquidation and on 6 June the company announced its decision to liquidate on 28 June, 1995.

These unfortunate people are locked out. They have no money, they have no pay and are treated very shabbily by the directors of the Irish Press and it is regrettable that they are being treated shabbily by the Department of Social Welfare. There is no valid reason these people are not entitled to their due payments and I call on the Minister, Deputy De Rossa, and his Minister of State, Deputy Durkan, to intervene. These people have suffered enough. Why punish people who have been a very important arm of the democratic institutions of the State? I call on the Minister to intervene in this sad situation to ensure that they get their basic entitlement.

Minister of State at the Department of Social Welfare (Mr. Durkan)

I thank Deputy Walsh for affording me the opportunity to place on public record my reply to this important issue. Social Welfare legislation provides that persons involved in a trade dispute are not entitled to receive unemployment payments for the duration of the dispute. Persons not participating in or directly interested in the dispute are exempt from this disqualification. However, it is open to a person who is disqualified to claim supplementary welfare allowance from his local health board in respect of his-her dependants for the duration of the dispute.

Where persons who have lost their employment arising from an industrial dispute claim unemployment payments the procedure is to select a case representative of the persons concerned and apply the decision in this "test" case to the other applicants. This is done with the agreement of the workers and their representatives and is a practical way of obtaining an early and uniform decision on all applications.

I should point out that the Minister, Deputy De Rossa and I are deeply conscious of the hardship and concern of the people who are out of work and without an income arising from this dispute, in particular the plight of journalists.

Mr. Callely

Why does the Minister not resolve it?

Mr. Durkan

At the onset of the industrial dispute between the National Union of Journalists and Irish Press Newspapers my Department advised both the union and the company of the proposed approach and sought information on the background to the dispute.

On Friday, 26 May 1995 local offices of the Department were advised that applications from non-journalist staff who had been laid off that day and who were not directly involved in the dispute could be approved for payment. In fact, there are some 450 such workers currently claiming unemployment benefit from my Department.

An application from a journalist for unemployment benefit was selected as a "test" case and submitted to a deciding officer on 31 May 1995. The deciding officer determined that the applicant had lost his employment by reason of a stoppage of work because of a trade dispute and was directly interested in the dispute and was, accordingly, disqualified from receipt of payment for as long as the stoppage of work continues. This decision was then notified to all offices of the Department. The person concerned appealed the disqualification on 1 June 1995 and was afforded an oral hearing of his case by the Social Welfare appeals office on 15 June.

At the appeal hearing the appellant was represented by an official of the National Union of Journalists and had a full opportunity to present his case.

The appeals officer has today issued his determination and has upheld the decision of the deciding officer.

Social Welfare legislation also provides that a person involved in a trade dispute who is dissatisfied with the decision of a deciding officer and the appeals officer may apply for an adjudication on the matter to the Social Welfare Tribunal. The tribunal is a statutory body which was set up in 1982. The purpose of the tribunal is to adjudicate on cases of employees who are dissatisfied with a decision under the decisions and appeals machinery disqualifying them from receiving unemployment benefit or assistance on the grounds that they are involved in a trade dispute. The tribunal investigates cases where it is alleged that a person was unreasonably deprived of his or her employment by an employer who failed or refused to utilise negotiating machinery normally available for the settlement of disputes. If the tribunal decides that this was in fact the case it can determine that benefits are to be paid.

It is a matter for the person concerned and his representatives to decide whether a case should be submitted to the tribunal. All I can say at this stage is that the services of the tribunal are available to the employees concerned.

I understand that the board of Irish Press Newspapers has decided to convene a extraordinary general meeting of the shareholders on 28 June 1995 for the purposes of appointing a liquidator to the company. Any decisions made by the shareholders with regard to the future of the company and its workforce could affect the entitlements of the persons concerned to unemployment payments and will be taken into account by my Department in reviewing their entitlements.

It is important to refer the case to the tribunal as quickly as possible as this is the next stage in the machinery for processing such cases. It goes without saying that the Government is concerned about this and anxious to see an amicable and early resolution.