The creation of high quality, decent jobs is the only way to ensure that economic recovery is genuine and sustainable, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions said on Monday (6th October).

Ahead of World Day for Decent Work – marked annually on 7th October – Congress Assistant General Secretary Sally Anne Kinahan said: “Employment and job creation are the key to any economic recovery, but only when we see a high proportion of properly-paid and secure jobs being created will be able to say the recovery is both genuine and sustainable, over the longer-term.

“We have a problem with low pay in this economy and with the creation of insecure and precarious jobs, particularly over recent years. Badly-paid and insecure work is economically self-defeating and no basis on which to build a recovery.

“We need to make the creation of Decent Work in the form of secure, well-paid jobs with good prospects, a key aim of any recovery and a hallmark of the economy of the future,” Kinahan said.

“While any drop in unemployment is welcome, we need to look beyond the headline figures and see exactly what type of job is being created. If work does nothing to lift individuals and families out of penury, or offer real prospects for the future, then we have to question whether we have the right approach.

“We know that some 95,000 workers are classified as ‘working poor’ because of low income levels, while official figures (2013) also show an increase of some 30% in the number of families in receipt of Family Income Supplement.

“We cannot build a proper recovery on those weak foundations,” Kinahan said.

World Day for Decent Work is an initiative of the International Trade Union Confederation and aims to promote better standards of employment and job creation across the global economy.