Small subsidy can save 300 Rehab workers’ jobs – O’Dea
GOVERNMENT will come under renewed pressure to save the jobs of 300 special needs workers employed by Rehab at various centres across the country.
Fianna Fáil finance spokesman Willie O’Dea estimates that a subsidy of about €2,000 per worker – contrasting with grant aid of up to €90,000 per job for big multinationals creating new jobs here – would avoid heartbreak for vulnerable people and their families.
The Limerick City TD said he is increasing pressure on the issue this week with questions tabled to Social Protection Minister Heather Humphreys.
He is also seeking fellow Fianna Fáil TDs and senators’ support at Wednesday’s parliamentary party meeting for an early remedy for the plight of the workers, many of whom he said are getting on in years and know no other outlet in life.
The row erupted last month when Rehab announced 37 workers in Limerick faced redundancy due to financial difficulties.
The State pays most of their wages via a special scheme and Mr O’Dea argues the jobs could be saved “for very small money”.
At the time, the charity said business at its Rehab Logistics facility in Raheen, Limerick,
had been making losses for several years and problems were compounded by the coronavirus pandemic forcing closure for a time last year.
But Mr O’Dea said some of the workers at the facility have worked there almost 40 years and most are on minimum wage – over half of which is paid through the long-standing Disability Wage Subsidy Scheme by the Department of Social Protection.
The Fianna Fáil finance spokesman said he believed a number of other plants run by Rehab – with a potential total of about 300 jobs – were now being called into question.
He said he understood the wage subsidy amounted to €5.30 per hour and was “very small money” when current expenditure was taken into account given Covid-19 special payments.
“We also have the among worst records in the developed world for employing people with disabilities,” he said.
“This has to be seen in the context of people with little to look forward to and the immense worry and distress their families are now facing.”
The case has also been taken up by the trade union Siptu, which represents the special needs workers.
Rehab defended its actions, arguing economic reality had given them few options.