Could you do without your union dues? [Independent.ie]
- Published: 30 January 2011
NOT only have the recession, budget cutbacks and higher taxes forced many of us to forget about our sun holiday this year -- more than 100,000 of us can't even afford to pay our electricity or gas bills.
Despite this, many of us are forking out a few hundred euro a year to be in a trade union. Furthermore, as the tax relief on trade union subscriptions was abolished earlier this month, the cost of your trade union membership will go up by as much as €70 this year.
If your union means nothing more to you than boring meetings and a magazine which comes in the post every so often (which you fall asleep reading), it could be time to put that few hundred euro you pay to your union each year back into your pocket.
It's about two years since teachers picketed the headquarters of Anglo Irish Bank to vent their anger about the public sector pension levy.
This would be the first of many teacher protests against the pension levy, which cut their pay by up to 10.5 per cent. Despite union action, teachers have had to live with the pension levy -- as well as further pay cuts.
Teachers taking up jobs this year will be paid up to €6,000 less than those who started jobs in 2010 -- because of the 10 per cent cut in public service starter salaries announced by Finance Minister Brian Lenihan last month. There have also been painful staff cutbacks in schools over the last couple of years.
Full Story: www.independent.ie
