Staff Shortage across Ireland. Why are 150,000 citizens claiming Unemployment assistance when there are thousands of jobs available across the state. Time for a national conversation.

46 comments

  2. It’s time for a conversation all right. A conversation with dickhead business owners raking in a fortune and offering wages so bad that people are better off on the dole.

    Arseholes.

  3. Companies still dont get it. Low wages and shit conditions are gone, not an option. Minimum wage salary offers should be laughed out the door. It’s an employee’s market, if you want to compete, offer more and better. Or keep your vacancy unfilled 🤷‍♂️

  4. If one of the many answers is that work can no longer pay for rent in most urban areas, I don’t think he’ll like the direction that the conversation goes in somehow.

  5. Pretty standard to have four or five percent unemployed even with full employment.

    The long term unemployed is probably the figure he should be having the conversation about, doubt he’d hire any of those anyway.

  7. “Time for a national conversation” ..“Wait, stop saying wages aren’t good enough, I represent those employers” …Replies off.

  8. Okay… let’s have a conversation about it.

    I earn above the average industrial wage. Not much more, but I’m pretty comfortable. In spite of that, I’m trying to save for a mortgage. This means I save as much as I can. Inflation has impacted my ability to do; it hasn’t curtailed it, thankfully, but it has impacted it.

    I used to work minimum wage jobs while I was completing my degree. I went back as a mature student and this action was key in my career progression and betterment of my overall financial situation.

    These minimum wages jobs were predominantly in the hospitality industry. I have never worked harder, never experienced worse management and never been more under-appreciated for the work I did during those times. My experiences have left me with a deep disdain for that particular sector: split shifts, “looking busy”, tips being taken by management to the tune of €120 per week for “breakages/fuck ups whether they occured or not, zero benefits, zero sick pay, threatened with losing employment for being sick, working the day after my son born, the list is fucking endless. That sector treats employment law like it’s a suggestion; an “ideal” scenario that’s always out of reach.

    If I had the misfortune of losing my current position, I would sign on rather than do a minimum wage job again. The minimum wage is currently €10.50 an hour. If you do 40 hours a week, that’s €420 before tax. Factor in tax ~~at~~ ~~20%~~ (**including** **tax** **credits**), that’s ~~€336~~ **€379**. The dole is €205 per week. If you factor in all the absolute bullshit I’ve listed above, is that ~~€131~~ **€174** actually work the expended effort? I would argue absolutely not.

    There are industries in this country that seriously need to be looked at. There is a management in this country that seems to believe that people should work as hard as possible for the less amount payable entirely on their terms and they should have the ability to get rid of you immediately and without consequence should you have the temerity to ask for better than that.

    Until that happens…. expect more of this.

    Edited: minor error re tax. There’s about €40 in difference, which obviously changes everything and negates the overall point….

  9. A lot of unskilled jobs are left unfilled because they’re in areas where the rent is either too high or unavailable, and the commute wouldn’t be worth it. This is especially true in Dublin, but also in places such as Cork and Limerick. If you walk through the city centre of Dublin now you will see a myriad of shops, bars, and restaurants with posters outside stating they’re hiring that won’t be filled for any appreciable length of time for these reasons.

    There is a pub in Temple Bar (forget which one) that recently offered 6 months accommodation to entice an experienced bartender to take the job.

  10. Bit rich coming from the CEO of Restaurants Association of Ireland. Hospitality industry in Ireland is constantly lobbying for more government handouts and subsidies. Tax payer money was used to prop up restaurants around the country during covid. This ungrateful fat lump should be on his knees thanking the government for their very generous social welfare schemes.

  12. I’ve been applying to jobs non stop for 6 months now (on disability but it’s not coming close to covering expenses) and haven’t so much as gotten a “no”. Even for awful jobs that anyone could do.

  13. The Service industry here is a nightmare. That same stoic mammy attitude that made sharon an absolute weapon means it’s fucking awful to serve a bar or food here

    I’m a years long barman, I’ve two good friends the same and were burnt out at it, all of rural Ireland’s atrocious mental health walks in the bar 5 o clock on a Friday, do ya like shit, piss, vomit and broken glass all before the snyd comments and personal comments for low money and shit hours? Well become a barman you’ll miss Christmas and new year too

    Oh and If your handsome youll be straight up sexual assaulted more than once, did I mention the shit pay

  16. Ten years I’ve been a bartender all over the world, Ireland was the worst of it all. People look at you as a nobody, order you around like a piece of shit and just think of your job is a stepping stone to something else, god forbid it’s a career! Feck that!

  18. There’s a lot of business owners that need a good kick up the hole. This has been going on for too long now. If you can’t pay a living wage, you don’t deserve to be running a business. Simple as, as harsh as that might sound.

  19. Maybe 🤔 just maybe there is way to make undesired job more desirable in a capitalist economy? I just can’t put my figure on it . So complex

  21. Adrien Cummins is a total fucking moron. Kept tweeting lies during lockdowns and blocked anyone who pointed out his bullshit.

  22. Thousands of jobs sure- do those jobs offer a living wage for people to get by on or are they suitable in terms of location? Im sure its not black and white

  23. I am a chef and I left the industry after 22 yrs, a few years before the pandemic hit. I went into a factory took a lower wage but have every weekend off and if I work over 39 hours it’s time and a half and Sundays are double time. I would not go back into a kitchen again to be yelled at by entitled assholes of managers and crazy owners again. They treat their staff like shit.

    Plus most hospitality people that are on the dole are working cash in hand. This is from my own personal experience of what I see which makes me mad. But nothing will be done.

  26. I’ll tell you about this fella. A pure cod.

    A good few years ago now just after the 2008 recession, a friend of mine was working for a business that had a good few restaurant owners as customers.

    So he approaches the RAI and the spud head fella about a special rate for RAI members. Basically a sweet deal for everyone; restaurants get a lower price, RAI look like they’re helpful, and my mate wins some new business.

    Anyway, fast forward to the signing of the deal, and my pal heads to RAI offices; Major red flag, most of the staff are very young girls on internships. Anyway, the negotiation goes on, but stall because the cabbage head wanted something for himself…tickets for the upcoming All-Ireland. WTF.

    Now, my friend, a straight fella couldn’t do it. And the whole thing never worked out. You’d have to wonder what deals are done and how much this self-elected fella has pocketed over the years.

  29. They say they are crying out for paramedics

    I’ve been sat in a number 1 spot on a panel for the last 4 months. They don’t want to give us jobs

  30. The hospitality industry is constantly advocating for more immigration because newly arrived immigrants are likely to put up with shittier pay and conditions than locals.

  31. This is what happens when rents can never be too high and wages can never be low enough.
    When will captains of industry demand a national conversation on the impact on the wider economy of ever increasing property prices and rents?

  32. I believe people are more inclined to apply for a job when they know what the salary is. I also believe that employers are more likely to put applicants off by not including the salary figure in the job ad.

    Irish employers, for whatever reason, tend not to state what the salary is for a job on job websites and boards. Look at Indeed.ie and Indeed.au (Australia) to see what I mean.

    Here in Australia it’s the norm to advertise what the pay will be, and why wouldn’t it be. Someone who’s on 60k a year isn’t gonna be interested in a 40k a year job.

    If Irish employers want to get more applicants they should be upfront about what they will pay them.

  33. >Who can reply?

    >People @adriancummins follows or mentioned can reply

    When your opinion is so shit that you can’t handle the mockery associated with publicly airing it.

  35. Because 50,000 are genuine layabouts that will never want to work but the other 100,000 are people who genuinely can’t work for disabilities, and mental and physical health issues.

  37. The RAI is cancer to the national discourse. All they want to do is undermine workers through attacks on our welfare system, workers rights and importing cheap labour.

  38. “There is a large enough work force to fill these vacancies but thousands of positions are unfilled because employers are cheap and landlords are greedy. Time for a national conversation”

  39. Let’s try something different – in a busy bar area if you don’t have the hours for a full time person – get together with another owner and between you guarantee 40 hours. Offer an inconvenience fee of maybe €2 per hour to the employee. Treat the employee as special and you will get special results.

  42. The hospitality industry is a shambles here and people have had enough.

    Give decent pay and conditions and they will get workers.

    If your business can only survive because you pay peanuts or over work staff then you don’t deserve to be running it.

  43. If you want people to work evenings on their feet dealing with drunks and assholes, pay them more. Then you’ll get the staff.

  45. I can tell you why in my case. I work in a relatively well paid job but it is contract work. When my contract ends I will be unemployed and entitled to claim unemployment benefit. I will absolutely do this rather than get another much poorly paid temporary job in services or whatever. When I am unemployed I remove my children from childcare and so I do not pay for my astronnomical childcare costs and my transport expenses, lunch expenses etc. Then when I secure another contract that pays enough to encourage me to go back into the workforce I will do so and it makes sense once more to assume these costs of working. It costs me a lot of money to actually work.

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