Page 5 - Mark Okeeffe News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

"We're hoping that we will be open by mid-May, somewhere around the 17th of May is what we're hoping for cause it will give us enough time not just to restock our salons, get our salons recleaned, also to get our staff in the right frame of mind because they have all been off now since Christmas Eve, it's a long time to be out of work. Mentally we have to get our staff geared up," he said. "We reopened after the first lockdown with very strict protocols that the industry put together and the government approved, so we've been all over that the last two reopenings, salon owners up and down the...

Hairdressers working around the clock in the run-up to the festive season will not be entitled to a Christmas bonus despite spending months out of work due to Covid-19 restrictions. Mark O'Keeffe, director of Brown Sugar salons, who employs more than 100 staff, said hairdressers will not be entitled to the social welfare bonus because their employers were encouraged to take staff off the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) and pay them "through the books" in the second lockdown. Mr O'Keeffe said Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe needs to "put his hands up and admit his mistake". He added: "In...