22/01/2025 Comments are off SIPTU Health Admin
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SIPTU says disability services suffering due to lack of adequate funding model

SIPTU representatives say a lack of an adequate funding model for community and voluntary disability services is leading to adverse impacts on clients as well as staff retention and recruitment issues.

SIPTU Sector Organiser, Sharon Cregan, said: “The Programme for Government states that the incoming Government will increase investment in the disability services, seek to attract staff into the sector and work towards resolving outstanding pay issues. However, when it comes to how this is to be achieved the document lacks information.

“We are being advised that some disability services providers are in a state of extreme financial distress. As a result, some may even be unable to make timely payments to the Revenue Commissioners and pension companies. As a Union which organises thousands of members in many organisations assisting those with physical, sensory and intellectual disabilities, we are increasingly encountering situations where payments to staff have been delayed due to funding issues.”

Cregan added: “Our members in these settings provide care to some of the most vulnerable adults and children in our communities. Staff and service users are anxious about the future of these services. This anxiety is heightened by the lack of a clear funding model for the sector. We urge the incoming Government to address this issue as a matter of urgency.”

17/01/2025 Comments are off SIPTU Health Admin
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SIPTU Section 39 workers to ballot for strike over Government inaction on pay

SIPTU’s Health Division is to begin a ballot of up to 5,000 members working in Section 39 Organisations for strike action due to the failure of the Government to honour a pay agreement struck at the Workplace Relations Commission in October 2023.

SIPTU Sector Organiser, Damian Ginley, said: “The plight of Section 39 workers took centre stage during the General Election campaign. Senior politicians from Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil were falling over themselves to offer support and solutions, in the media and their election manifestos.

“However, their fine words ring hollow when we examine the Draft Programme for Government. The incoming Government has failed to include an adequate commitment to address the pay injustice that Section 39 workers face. Our members’ patience has now run out; they are saying enough is enough and want to take action. The pay link between the public sector and Section 39 Organisations must be restored, and the Government must stop treating our members, who provide essential disability care, elder care, and home support services, as second class.

“The failure of successive governments to deliver on pay justice for Section 39 workers has left our members struggling with low wages, while the organisations they work for face relentless recruitment and retention crises that undermine services.”

He added: “We believe the Government has again failed Section 39 workers. It has not taken the action needed to resolve this long-running dispute as a matter of urgency. Our members in Section 39 Organisations across the country now firmly believe they have no option but to ballot for industrial action. A strike may be imminent unless a swift solution can be found to this dispute.”

14/01/2025 Comments are off SIPTU Health Admin
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SIPTU says action on workers’ pay and conditions needed due to recruitment crisis in care sector

SIPTU representatives have called on the Government to honour a commitment to raise the Minimum Annual Remuneration thresholds required to obtain an employment permit for Health Care Assistants (HCAs) and Home Support Workers or face a worsening crisis in these services.

SIPTU Sector Organiser, Sharon Cregan, said: “Stakeholders are currently making submissions as part of the ongoing review of work permit structures in Ireland. In the SIPTU submission to the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, we highlight the importance of the Government proceeding with the implementation of increases to Minimum Annual Remuneration thresholds for migrant HCAs and Home Support workers. These increases would see the Minimum Annual Remuneration for Health Care Assistants and Home Support Workers rise from €27,000 per annum to €30,000 per annum.

“However, this policy initiative alone will not address the recruitment crisis for HCAs and Home Support Workers in the Irish health service. The huge disparity of earnings between those employed in the public sector when compared to those working in private and voluntary settings is resulting in staff draining out of these services into those directly run by the State.”

She added: “SIPTU Health Division has consistently called on the Government to act to ensure decent rates of pay and better conditions for those employed in the private and voluntary sector in order to stem the flow of workers out of these services. This can be done by putting in place an effective collective bargaining mechanism so these workers can come together to seek improvements. How such a change could be achieved is at the core of our submission to the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment.”

Union representatives are also seeking negotiations with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment on the future of care work in Ireland. At these Union representatives would seek to ensure transparency in pay and conditions in the Sector as well as equality of treatment for all workers.

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