TIme to move to "quality" of employment rather than "level" of employment - Senator Higgins

Speaking as part of the European parliamentary week, Senator Higgins spoke of the need to focus on measuring quality employment rather than level of employment. She included issues of precarious work and the lack of collective bargaining as concerns.

She celebrated recent important progress on banded hours in Ireland, with the outlawing of zero-hours contracts. She spoke of her concern that poor social protection mechanisms could be pushing people into precarious work or in-work poverty. Providing the option for "training first" supports is one means of doing this. 

She also stressed the importance of quality in the field of carework and within public services and public procurement.

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Gender Equality Committee Launches Interim Report on Constitutional Change

I was delighted as a member of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Gender Equality to attend the launch of our interim report on constitutional change today. The interim report calls for a referendum to remove the 'women in the home' clause from the Constitution and replace it with a recognition of the role and importance of care in society. The report also calls for constitutional recognition and protection of the different family types in society. Since entering the Seanad, valuing and recognising the role and importance of care in society has been a key priority and this report reflects the recommendations of the Citizen's Assembly on Gender Equality and the pressing need for constitutional change.

You can find a copy of the interim report here: Interim Report on Amendments to the Constitution (oireachtas.ie)

Senator Higgins joins Oireachtas colleagues in calling for more effective health and safety protocols

As we enter Phase One and the reopening of certain sectors, the safety of society and workers has to remain paramount. I have joined  Joan Collins T.D, Senator Lynn Ruane and number of other Oireachtas colleagues, in supporting proposals put forward by Unite and other unions to ensure that health and safety protocols in the workplace are effective and enforced and that that trade unions have an active role in monitoring worker safety. 

We called on the Government to update the Return to Work Safety Protocol document and give inspectors the resources to conduct unannounced health and safety inspections of sites and issue on the spot fines. I have personally highlighted the need for more robust inspections on building sites where, as we heard in the Employment and Social Protection Committee last year, there is an excessive reliance on false or pressured ‘self-employment'.