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SIPTU accepts invitation to WRC talks tomorrow morning
SIPTU Health representatives have accepted an invitation to attend talks at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) tomorrow (Thursday, 27th June) at 10.30 a.m. to discuss the dispute involving 10,000 health service workers over the implementation of a job evaluation scheme.
SIPTU Health Division Organiser, Paul Bell, said; “We have accepted the invitation from the WRC to attend talkstomorrow. The 24 hour strike will continue today and the planned three days of strike action due to take place next week (on 2nd, 3rd and 4th July) proceed if we do not resolve this dispute. We are greatly encouraged by the huge turnout of members on picket lines at 38 hospitals across the country today.
We also appreciate the support of the public, including patients and visitors to the hospitals, and of our colleagues in the health service.”
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List of Hospitals on Strike
The following is a list of hospitals where SIPTU members will take 24-hour strike action from 8am on Wednesday (26th June) until 8am Thursday (27th June)
All support welcome.
- 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 Orthopaedic Hospital Croom
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Planned health strike to go ahead this Wednesday
SIPTU representatives have confirmed today (Monday, 24th June) that talks at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) aimed at resolving a dispute on job evaluation have concluded without an agreement.
SIPTU Health Divisional Organiser, Paul Bell said: “SIPTU would prefer a negotiated settlement that does not impact on patient services. Unfortunately, we have run out of time and too many issues remain unresolved. SIPTU members have acted in good faith at all times during this dispute including by deferring two days of strike action. We believe that the Government has abused the conciliation process and never meaningfully engaged with SIPTU representatives.
Some €16.2 million is owed to our members yet the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform has only offered €1.2 million to resolve this dispute. Furthermore, the Department has attempted to frustrate this process by seeking to unilaterally change a crucial element of the job evaluation scheme which centres on the assimilation of pay to new grades as awarded under this independent process.”
He added: “A 24 hour strike, involving up to 10,000 support staff, will go ahead from 8.00 a.m on Wednesday (26th June) as our members continue to pursue their legitimate claim for recognition, respect and pay justice.”
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WRC talks resume over the implementation of a job evaluation scheme
Today (Monday, 24th June) SIPTU representatives are back in the Workplace Relations Commission to win an agreement on the implementation of a job evaluation scheme and recognition for support staff members.
Download the SIPTU Health App for updates.
Video: Health Care Assistants like Gareth are the backbone of our health service.
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Unions, it’s time to talk fiscal policy
Mention ‘fiscal policy’ in a crowded room and it will soon be empty. Fiscal space, structural balance, output gap, expenditure benchmarks – this is not the stuff of every day conversation.
However, in the last crisis trade unionists were divided over policy responses, undermining our ability to influence the public agenda.
We cannot let that happen again, especially as the economic conversation is moving back into austerity terrain – spending cuts, tax rises, deficits, debt, etc.
In its recent assessment the Fiscal Council raised legitimate concerns regarding the country’s finances, especially given the uncertainty over a hard Brexit, over-reliance on corporate tax revenue, Trump’s tariff threats and climate breakdown.
The prospect of higher deficits and rising debt is very real. And so is the inevitable public debate.
Would you cut spending or raise taxes? What would you cut? What tax would you raise? It’s as if we learned nothing from the previous crisis. Already growth is slowing down from its post-recession/austerity bounce.
Spending cuts and tax increases will only exacerbate this slowdown.
A real problem is that we do not have a definitive measure of our public finances. Just as we know that GDP is not a reliable indicator of the economy, the Fiscal Rules throw up contradictory projections.
Do we scope for more spending increases? Is the economy over- heating? Ultimately, we can’t say for certain. Imagine a business or your own household facing such uncertainty over what should be a straight-forward measurement.
Professor John Fitzgerald, formerly of the ESRI, suggests we rely on ‘common sense’. If so, common sense tells us that if we enter a slow-down with a housing crisis it is going to cost a lot more to repair when the economy picks up again.
More than 40% of us are unable to meet an unexpected expense (one of the highest levels in the EU), and common sense tells us this figure will only increase in the event of a slowdown.
Common sense tells us that the cost of meeting the challenge of climate breakdown will go north if the economy goes south.
Common sense also tells us that collective bargaining at the sectoral level is the best way to protect workers’ incomes and jobs in the event of a downturn. In this respect, we should argue that collective bargaining is an important fiscal tool, not just an industrial relations one.
Similarly, in a downturn the private sector reduces investment. Therefore, the state needs to increase productive investment.
It also needs to spread public owner- ship into the market economy through business start-ups and rescues – especially in cash-starved regions and districts where there is no incentive for private capital.
And if we want to talk about more productive public services (the word ‘reform’ will be thrown out again but, like the last crisis, it will just be code for cuts), then let’s introduce an innovation process guided by the people who know best, the people who actually deliver them: the public service.
The trade union movement needs to start a dialogue on fiscal policy on our own terms, drawing up new starting points – the participation of workers in the decision-making process through comprehensive collective bargaining in the private sector and employee-driven innovation in the public service.
We need to grow public investment and public enterprise at local, regional and national level.
In short, we need to start with workers and public activity, the work and ideas of people who produce the goods and services. That would be a far better fiscal policy than anything the right-wing parties and employers are already cooking up.
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Health strike deferred to allow for focused talks at WRC on Monday
SIPTU representatives have tonight (Friday, 21st June) confirmed that a 24 hour strike planned for next Tuesday (25th June) has been deferred pending the outcome of talks on Monday (24th June) at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) aimed at resolving the dispute in the health service.
SIPTU Health Divisional Organiser, Paul Bell, said: “Following protracted discussions today some movement has been made on the claims put forward by SIPTU representatives on the full implementation of the job evaluation scheme. At the request of the WRC, SIPTU representatives have agreed to defer strike action scheduled for Tuesday to allow for focused discussions which will hopefully make the full implementation of a job evaluation scheme a reality for our members.”
He added: “If negotiations are not concluded successfully on Monday, SIPTU members are prepared to take strike action on Wednesday (26th June) in 38 selected hospitals across the country in pursuit of their legitimate claim for pay justice.”
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WRC talks adjourn until Friday afternoon.
“Only for the actions of our members and our strike committees across the country we would not be in the WRC today. Government would not have taken any notice of our claim for fairness and respect.”
– SIPTU Health Divisional Organiser, Paul Bell
Updates on the talks are available directly on the SIPTU Health App.Free to download in the App Store and Google Play now.
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Health strike deferred to allow for talks tomorrow at WRC
SIPTU representatives have confirmed that a 24 hour workplace stoppage planned for tomorrow has been deferred pending the outcome of emergency talks at the WRC on the implementation of a job evaluation scheme.
SIPTU Health Divisional Organiser, Paul Bell, said: “The strike action scheduled for tomorrow is now deferred at the request of the Workplace Relations Commission. Discussions on implementation of the job evaluation scheme will commence tomorrow (Thursday, 20th June)and Friday (21st June)
He added: “Preparations for strike action for next Tuesday (June 25th) and Wednesday (June 26th)
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Health workers strike for decent pay
Up to 10,000 health workers in 38 selected hospitals and health care facilities are taking action. Action for justice. Action for recognition. Action for respect.
The action will see SIPTU members providing portering, household and catering services and those working as healthcare assistants, maternity care assistants, laboratory aides, chefs and surgical instrument technicians take to the picket line in their pursuit of pay justice. The workers are in dispute with the Health Service Executive (HSE) over its failure to implement increases in pay for SIPTU members arising from a job evaluation scheme.
However, the roots of this dispute run deep. In 2015, following seven years of painful pay adjustments and changes to work practices, SIPTU members voted in overwhelming numbers to support the Lansdowne Road Agreement.
Seen by members as the first step in a journey towards full pay restoration, the agreement included the re-introduction of a Job Evaluation scheme.
The scheme had been suspended during the height of the economic crash in 2008 and its reintroduction gave SIPTU members hope that by staying the course, playing by the rules and working with their union there would be brighter days ahead.
Meanwhile, four long years have passed and SIPTU members are still waiting for this recognition. This is despite ballots for strike action in 2016 and 2018, both resulting in Workplace Relations Commission interventions. Health and other public service members also voted for the Public Service Stability Agreement (PSSA) in 2017.
The Health Service Executive (HSE) accepted the findings of the Job Evaluation scheme. It agreed that our members are doing more work, have more qualifications and are subject to additional health and safety protocols and practices than their job descriptions allowed for.
But when it comes to giving the lowest paid workers in the public health service the respect they deserve, the employers are slow to deliver. Just like union members across the public service and in low paid, precarious jobs in the private sector, these workers have to pay extortionate rents and mortgage repayments as well escalating childcare and other costs of living.
The implementation of this agreed job evaluation scheme will cost about €20 million, very small change considering the overall health budget of €18 billion, not to mention the cost of the Government’s recent financial mismanagement of public projects including the National Children’s Hospital (NCH) and the rural broadband plan.
However, when enough political pressure is put on them, the money is almost certain to be found. We saw it with the special deal given to the Garda, the rubberstamping of the gargantuan overspends in public infrastructure projects and the substantial pay out recommended by the Labour Court in the recent dispute involving nurses and midwives.
This dispute also comes at a time when the reintroduction of massive bankers’ bonuses is back on the agenda, when tax reliefs are subsidising the investments and savings of high earners at the expense of those on low and middle incomes and when hundreds of millions of euros are being paid into the pockets of the privateers running our creaking home care services into the ground.
The Government must now honour its obligations to health workers. SIPTU members have kept their heads down, worked hard and played by the rules.
The behaviour of the HSE and the two government departments has been interpreted by our members as disrespectful and dismissive as if nobody will miss them if they go on strike.
Thousands of health workers have formed the view that Fine Gael believe that support staff are not of any great value to the health service.
This view has been reaffirmed by the fact that neither the Minister for Health, Simon Harris, or the Minister for Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, Paschal Donohoe have made any comment or intervened in this dispute to date.
SIPTU representatives believe it is unacceptable that workers should be forced to go into an official dispute in order to get what they are owed. SIPTU members are not asking for flexibility or for a special deal. We are demanding that the Government honours its agreement, give our members the justice they deserve or face a summer of discontent in the health service.
In the end, all disputes are resolved. Crucially, how this dispute is resolved will undoubtedly shape our members attitude towards any future proposals for a successor to the PSSA.
The following is a list of hospitals where SIPTU members will take 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 Orthopaedic Hospital Croom
