SIPTU members working as support staff vote for strike action
SIPTU members working as health service support staff have voted by 94% to 6% in favour of taking strike action in a dispute concerning the implementation of a job evaluation scheme.
The result of vote was announced today (Friday, 17th May) at a special conference on pay justice in Croke Park.
In a separate ballot, chefs working for the Health Service Executive (HSE) also voted overwhelmingly in favour of strike action by a margin of 97% to 3% in favour.
SIPTU Deputy General Secretary for the Public Sector, John King, said: “The response from our members today is clear and emphatic. Our union is demanding meaningful engagement with Government on the resolution to this longstanding issue once and for all. Our members have played by the rules, and kept the health services going in recent times. They deserve to get the pay justice they have waited so patiently for.”
He added: “Our members have the full backing of our union on this as it was conceded as part of a previous national public sector agreement.”
SIPTU Health Division Organiser, Paul Bell said: “The size of the vote today in favour of strike action undoubtedly demonstrates our members’ anger with the Government due to their failure to give them the fair and equal treatment they demand. It is a fact that this vote was brought about by the failure by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe to honour the provisions included in the Lansdowne Road and Haddington Road agreements.”
He added: “It is never our members’ desire to engage in strike action, which will put additional pressures on the health service. However, after months of obstruction our members have been left with no option but to express themselves and their frustrations. The ball is now in the court of the Government and the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform. They can either pay our members what they are owed or face the consequences.”
The all-out strike involving over 17,000 health support staff workers will initially take place in 36 acute hospital facilities across the country.
The following is a list of the hospitals where SIPTU support staff members voted in favour of strike action:
- Cork University Hospital
- Cork University Maternity Hospital
- Kerry University Hospital
- Mallow General Hospital
- South Infirmary Hospital Cork
- South Tipperary General Hospital
- Wexford General Hospital
- St Lukes Hospital Carlow/Kilkenny
- Mercy Hospital Cork
- Connolly Hospital Blanchardstown
- National Rehabilitation Hospital
- Beaumont Hospital
- St Ita’s Portrane
- Mater Hospital
- St James Hospital
- St Vincent’s University Hospital
- Tallaght Hospital
- Our Lady’s Hospital Navan
- Louth County Hospital
- Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital Drogheda
- Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital Crumlin
- Rotunda Hospital
- Central Mental Hospital
- Midland Regional Hospital Mullingar
- Midland Regional Hospital Tullamore
- Midland Regional Hospital Portlaoise
- Naas General Hospital
- Cavan General Hospital
- Letterkenny University Hospital
- Sligo General Hospital
- Roscommon Hospital
- Portiuncula Hospital Ballinasloe
- Galway University Hospital
- Merlin Park
- Mayo University Hospital
- UL Hospital Dooradoyle
- UL Maternity Hospital
- UL Orthopedic Hospital Croom
