Bradley Bytes – A sort of political column by Dara Bradley

A trickle of Pandemic Recognition Payments began appearing in bank accounts of up to 300 contract workers at Galway University Hospitals last week.

Better late than never, this was welcome news. But the fact that contract cleaners, caterers and security guards had to hold a day of action outside UHG before they got paid, almost takes the good out of it.

When you’ve got to protest on your lunch-break in order to shame your employer into paying you what you’re entitled to, makes these low-paid workers question whether they were valued at all by Government and wonder if it was all just lip-service.

Remember, these contract workers were as much on the frontline during Covid-19 as nurses and doctors were. The contract cleaners were at the forefront of keeping UHG clean, and virus-free. The contract caterers were feeding patients and staff every day; a vital service.

And as for security guards? As well as ensuring the safety of patients with Alzheimer’s, for example, who may not have understood the threat of Covid, these heroes had to deal with the headbangers who turned up at the door of UHG, without masks, spouting nonsense conspiracy theories.

And remember they were doing it in March and April 2020 when the fear factor was very real. They turned up at work daily, they risked contracting Covid and still it’s only now they’re getting the €1,000 bonus (or €600 in some cases) that was promised by Government.

They watched on as nurses and doctors, direct employees of Saolta, were paid from May 2022, five months after Leo Varadkar confirmed the bonus scheme for frontline staff.

And between the jigs and the reels and the nonsense bureaucracy and dragging of heels, it took until last week for local contract cleaners to begin getting what they were owed. Many caterers and security guards still haven’t got their stipend . . . even though many are low paid workers and probably have it spent, through credit union loans, already!

So, well done to the 40 or so contract workers, members of trade union SIPTU, who staged a lunchtime protest outside the hospital earlier this month.

But shame on the State in particular, but also the private sector for making them stage a day of action before they got what they were owed.

And we’re told the country’s awash with money . . .

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.

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