Migrant health care assistants (HCAs) held a protest today (Thursday) outside the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment to demand urgent reform of the earnings rules which contribute to prolonging separation from their families. Workers also highlighted the anomaly which sees migrant HCAs on contracts pre-dating 1 January 2025 earning less than those on newer contracts.
Government rules mean that many migrant HCAs earn below the income threshold which would allow them to apply to bring family members to Ireland.
The government-mandated minimum salary increased in January for HCAs on new contracts. However, a lack of retrospection means migrant HCAs on existing contracts were excluded from last month’s increase, leaving them on minimum salaries of just over €27,000. This means that HCAs on existing contracts are not only earning below the family reunification threshold, but are also being paid less than new entrants performing the same role.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “It beggars belief that government policy is not only separating migrant HCAs from their families but also creating a two-tier wage structure which penalises workers on existing contracts.
“It’s time for the government to stop listening to care bosses and start showing some love to these essential workers by immediately raising the wages of all migrant HCAs and scrapping the government rules that are separating families.”
Although the government-mandated minimum salary increased in January for HCAs on new contracts, this will only enable workers to even apply to bring their spouse to live with them, since the Department of Justice reunification earnings threshold increases for each additional family member. This means that a spouse travelling to join their partner in Ireland would have to leave their children behind.
Unite member Shiji Moncy works as an HCA in Dublin and has been separated from her family for the past three years. She said: “Our role as health care assistants is physically and mentally exhausting, and at the end of each shift we return to an empty home. Our message to the public is simple: we look after your parents and grandparents as though they were ours – but we only get snatched video link moments with our own families. This Valentine’s Day we are asking the government to have a heart and let us bring our families to live with us.”
Unite’s Irish secretary Susan Fitzgerald said: “Migrant HCAs look after some of the most vulnerable members of our community and the care sector would stop functioning without them. It is intolerable that the government is continuing to suppress their wages at the behest of business interests.
“Compared to all other categories of workers in Ireland under the work permit system, HCAs are the lowest of the low in pay terms - even after the recent increase for new entrants. It’s long past time to start paying HCAs a decent wage, stop discriminating between workers, and stop separating workers from their families.”
Migrant healthcare assistants protesting for the right to bring their families here.
These are the people our health service is dependent upon. But they are so low paid that they are not allowed family reunification! pic.twitter.com/Hwse0ULQaH
— Paul Murphy 🏳️⚧️ (@paulmurphy_TD) October 17, 2023
