Women will be the “collateral damage” of the Covid-19 crisis

An employment expert warned that women will be the “collateral damage” of the Covid-19 crisis with new mothers among the most affected.

While maternity rights issues are already “endemic” in Ireland, women are being “mass abandoned” by both employers and the government, according to Richard Grogan, a labor law specialist and lawyer.

Her practice has seen a huge increase in calls from women on maternity leave who are not being returned to work due to the coronavirus crisis.

And Mr. Grogan says a major problem is that the government’s temporary wage subsidy scheme is not available to those who were on maternity leave when it was introduced.

And while politicians could promise employers that the legislation will be amended and backed down to include women on maternity leave as soon as there is a new government, Grogan said, this has not been done.

“The government is effectively abandoning women and children, shipping them in a boat and setting them aside,” Grogan said.

“If you weren’t on the payroll on February 29, you won’t get it [the temporary wage subsidy scheme]. Therefore, there are women who returned to work in March, April and May who will not receive the temporary wage subsidy.

“It is a dreadful anomaly for women.”

She said a new crisis is looming as closed child care facilities and schools lead to countless women losing their jobs when they cannot return to work, and the burden of child care still falls primarily on mothers.

And if an employee cannot give a definite date that he can return to work, an employer is entitled under the employment law to terminate his contract.

Grogan also warned that anyone who takes a case when their maternity rights are not respected should challenge them under the Equal Employment Laws, not the Unfair Dismissal Act, as the latter can only directly compensate for the lack of income, while the other can also grant payments for emotional damages. distress, violating a fundamental right and “dissuading” employers from ever repeating those actions.

Meanwhile, a new minimum of 107 virus cases has been notified to health officials.

However, another 24 people have died from the disease. The figures bring the number of confirmed cases to 23,242, while the total number of deaths is now 1,488.

Health chiefs say they have the ability to screen up to 15,000 people a day to detect the virus, but there are still delays of five days or more at places that get results. This is due to “complex cases,” said Dr. Cillian De Gascun, a member of the National Public Health Emergency Team.

There were communication problems, missing phone numbers, unique patient numbers and problems with computer systems, he said. Authorities hope to reduce the delays to two days.

Medical director Tony Holohan confirmed that he had spoken to his counterpart in the North about the differences in monitoring the disease. He said he echoed calls for an island-wide system to fight the virus.

He said he was “optimistic” that the restrictions could be eased next week and that the total number of cases in the coming weeks would drop to low double-digit numbers.