Campaigners have warned that women returning to work from maternity leave are being blocked from the COVID-19 Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme.

The scheme sees the government subsidising wages for companies that have been hit hard by the outbreak.

It aims to keep workers on the payroll by subsidising up to 85% of staff pay.

Maternity

In a letter to the Finance Minister today, the National Women’s Council of Ireland (NWCI), the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) and SIPTU warned that an “irregularity” is preventing companies from accessing the scheme for women returning from maternity leave.

NCWI Director Orla O’Connor said: “It appears that women returning from maternity leave are excluded from the benefits of the TWSS as, though the person was an employee, they did not receive normal pay during January and February 2020.

“As such, workers now find themselves in a position whereby their employers’ options are to pay them without receiving the assistance that the TWSS offers or lay them off so that they can access the Pandemic Unemployment Payment.”

"Discriminatory and deeply unjust"

She said the issue impacts most acutely on low-paid workers who have been relying on the State Maternity Benefit throughout their leave and were expecting to return to work on full pay.

“The Department of Finance must act quickly to end this deeply unjust anomaly, so that women returning to work after their maternity leave have their jobs and income protected,” she said.

She said anomalies in the system are understandable given the “speed at which the scheme was put in place.” She warned however that as it currently stands the exclusion of women returning from maternity leave is “both discriminatory and deeply unjust.”

The letter was signed by Orla O’Connor, Director of NWCI; Patricia King, General Secretary of ICTU and Darragh O’Connor, Head of Strategic Organising and Campaigns at Big Start / SIPTU.