SIPTU organisers in the public service representing members in the Health, Local Authority, Education and State sectors, are today commencing a consultation exercise with its members in advance of ballots for industrial action over pay later in August.
SIPTU Deputy General Secretary John King said: “Balloting for industrial action will begin on 29th August if there is no successful outcome to the talks on a review of the ‘Building Momentum’ agreement. The Workplace Relations Commission has invited the Public Service Committee of Congress to talks but the government side has said that it is not in a position to attend until the end of the month. While we have welcomed the invitation, we intend to continue the consultation process with our members and, in the absence of a set of proposals that can be put to our members, the ballots for industrial action will commence.”
The Public Services Committee of Congress invoked the provisions of the review clause in ‘Building Momentum’ on 11th March, 2022 when inflation was at 5.6% and when it was clear that the modest terms of the public service agreement, concluded in January 2021, were being completely eroded by the dramatic increase in the cost of living for workers. With inflation now running at 9.1%, union members are becoming increasingly frustrated at the Government’s failure to conclude an acceptable review of the pay terms of the Agreement.
SIPTU members across the public service will commence a consultation exercise in advance of ballots for industrial action over the failure of the Government to conclude an acceptable review of the pay provisions of the ‘Building Momentum’ Public Service Agreement. The consultation will involve union members and activists in the health service, local government, education and the State sectors in the coming weeks.
SIPTU Deputy General Secretary, John King, said that by refusing to re-engage with the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) to deal with escalation in the cost of living, the Government is in breach of the terms of the current Agreement.
John King said: “The Public Services Committee of Congress invoked the provisions of the review clause on the 11th March 2022 when inflation was at 5.6% and when it was clear that the modest terms of the Agreement, concluded in January 2021, were being completely eroded by the dramatic increase in the cost of living for workers. With inflation now running at 9.1%, the Government’s failure to re-engage at the WRC is no longer tenable.”
He added: “Talks at the WRC were deferred on 17th June when the Government side claimed it needed time to reflect. With the Dáil now in recess until early to mid-September, it is clear that it is not prepared to engage in meaningful discussions on the cost of living crisis. In these circumstances, we are now left with no alternative other than to ballot our members in order to protect their standard of living.”
SIPTU members employed as Covid test centre swabbers are calling on the Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly, to directly intervene to resolve their dispute with the HSE and the Department of Health concerning a review of pay rates for these essential workers.
SIPTU Sector Organiser, Damian Ginley, said: “This dispute centres on the failure of the HSE and Department of Health to honour clearly written commitments to have the Covid test centre swabber grade reviewed as part of a wider job evaluation scheme for health sector support workers.
“Our members are appalled and angered at the lack of respect being shown to swabbers. Covid test centre swabbers provide a key role in the test and trace approach adopted by this Government in response to the pandemic. When test centres were rolled out across all counties, swabbers took up temporary positions to support the Government in meeting the enormous demands faced on the service at the height of the pandemic.
“They met these demands in very challenging environments when there was enormous uncertainty as to the severity of the virus and very limited access to PPE. These workers put both themselves and their family members at risk to serve in the Government response to the pandemic.
“All our members are seeking is for the commitment to allow the swabber grade to be considered under the support staff job evaluation scheme to be honoured. They were available to partake in evaluations only to have their review appointments cancelled by the HSE.”
He added: “Despite numerous attempts to have this matter resolved our members were left with no alternative but to seek an urgent referral of the dispute to the Workplace Relations Commission. As the Government proposes to significantly scale back current Covid testing facilities from 30th June, our members are requesting that the Minister for Health personally intervenes at this late stage to ensure that this matter is addressed immediately.”
Negotiations on public service pay have concluded in the early hours of Friday (June 17th) without agreement at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC).
SIPTU Deputy General Secretary, John King, has said “it was very disappointing that it was not possible to close out on a review of the Public Service Agreement, Building Momentum, despite lengthy talks taking place at the WRC with officials from the government department for Public Expenditure.”
“Public service Unions are disappointed that, despite an element of positive engagement during the day, the reality is that the government side were not in a position to move into a space where agreement could be concluded.”
SIPTU and the ICTU public service unions had invoked the review clause of the agreement given the impact of inflation and increases in the costs of living on the value of workers’ wages; and the fact that these developments had completely eroded the benefit of modest the modest increases contained in Building Momentum.
The WRC requested both sides reflect on their position and public service Unions remain available for further engagement should the WRC invite the parties to further discussions.
SIPTU Deputy General Secretary, John King, has told the union’s Biennial Delegate Conference that members within the community sector will begin a national campaign of protest, industrial and strike action aimed at ending “the neglect of this sector by the state”.
Addressing the conference today (Tuesday, 29th March) in Sligo, King said the campaign would begin with a national protest in Dublin on Monday, 11th April.
He added; “The continued neglect, underfunding and wilful abandonment of the workers in this sector by the State and the establishment is shameful. Community and Section 39 Agency workers provide essential public services, on behalf of the State, to some of the most vulnerable and marginalised citizens and communities.
“The denial of funding for improvements in pay and conditions of employment is unacceptable. The move to privatise and commercialise some of these services will have profound negative consequences for our society and the citizens and communities that rely on them.”
He continued: “The Government must engage with this union to put in place a process that ensures these workers and their representatives can engage in a meaningful collective bargaining process that delivers implementable outcomes. If this Government is serious about the concept of Sectoral Bargaining, treating all the stakeholders as equals then it should show it in this Sector of our economy.
“SIPTU, with our colleague unions – Forsa and INMO will be supporting community sector workers in a campaign of protest, industrial and strike action in their pursuit of the right to be treated fairly and equitably. This commences on Monday, 11th April with a national protest and I ask you all to do everything you can to support this. Join us on our protest and let’s show solidarity with the resolve of community sector workers to make sure 2022 becomes the year we end their neglect by the State.”
In his address, King also renewed his call for the Government to review the Building Momentum, Public Sector Agreement. He said: “This is necessary right now because the underlying assumptions underpinning this modest agreement no longer apply. Inflation and the risk to the exchequer finances arising from the impact of the Covid pandemic are not in the place they were in 2020.”
More than 350 delegates are attending the SIPTU Biennial Delegate Conference in the Clayton Hotel in Sligo which to debate and discuss motions on improving the lives of workers in Ireland.
SIPTU representatives have called for an urgent meeting with the management of the HSE following the shocking revelation that patients and staff have, for several months, been using an unsafe hand sanitiser at health facilities across the country.
SIPTU Deputy General Secretary, John King, said: “Our members across the country are very concerned at this shocking development. HSE and other health facilities are risky and dangerous enough for staff and patients coping with Covid 19 without there being health risks associated with the use of a hand sanitising product.
“It is particularly disturbing given the importance placed by public health authorities on effective and regular hand washing as an essential measure in helping to prevent the spread of the virus.
“SIPTU members have been instructed and advised to use the unsafe ViroPro product extensively over the last seven months.
“We are now seeking immediate engagement with the HSE in order to obtain an explanation about the circumstances which led to the procurement and use of a product containing methanol which can cause serious health conditions including dermatitis, eye and upper respiratory system irritation as well as headaches.”
“SIPTU members also need to know what safe and effective alternative sanitiser the health authorities are going to provide and when and how they intend to roll it out across the health system.
Ireland is set to reopen at the end of June as we prepare to exit the lockdown following the outbreak of the coronavirus on our shores. However, health experts, the world over, say there is a good chance the coronavirus will be with us for a long time yet.
This reality means changing the way we interact, the way we work, the way we travel, the way we socialise and the way we care for each other.
A coronavirus-tinged world without a foreseeable end may be the cause of great fear for millions of people but with fear comes hope. Hope for a better tomorrow. Hope for a “new normal” that works for the many.
As we learn to live with the coronavirus, we have an opportunity to focus on what a better tomorrow, what a “new normal” can look like and how we can work together to achieve it.
For example, in health, our “new normal” can end record high hospital waiting lists, put a full stop on unequal two tiered health services and draw a line under the sick business of health and elder care profiteering.
The Covid-19 crisis has given people across the world a renewed and deep appreciation of how we collectively rely on all essential workers. From our cleaners to our consultants health workers have spent the lockdown, in the trenches, keeping us safe and our loved ones healthy, often at considerable risk to themselves.
The sheer speed and scale of this pandemic has made us question what we value and seek where the solutions really lie. It has shown us what the State can do when it acts with urgency and mobilises the necessary resources and there should be no going back.
No going back to a broken system that discriminates, that denies access to essential services on the basis of what’s in a sick person’s pocket or health insurance plan.
The sole criteria should always be need, with universal basic services provided free to people funded through a progressive and sustainable taxation system.
The plan, supported by the Irish trade union movement, was agreed in cross party committee in 2017 and adopted by government. The plan commits government to creating a modern, integrated health system, delivering timely care based on clinical need, for all.
The crisis has seen a fast-forwarding of Sláintecare — not only the use of public facilities for the public, but the sequestering of private facilities for the public good, so clearly when there is a will, there is a way.
The draft programme for government, yet to be endorsed by Fine Gael, Fianna Fail and Green Party members speaks of plans to “further accelerate the implementation of Sláintecare” with appropriate funding measures to be examined in “advance of Budget 2022” but we need to go further.
The last few weeks and months has been a real wakeup call for all of us. We have paid a tremendously high price for underinvestment in our public care services.
This has been borne out by the unacceptably high number of deaths in nursing homes with 50% of all COVID-19 fatalities, as identified by the Department of Health, as having occurred in a nursing home settings.
The special Oireachtas Covid-19 Committee was told this week that one in five of the 30,000 residents of nursing homes were confirmed to have a Covid-19 positive diagnosis.
This is unacceptable. We, as a society, must do and demand better.
This deliberate, rampant outsourcing of elderly care means that 82% of nursing home care is now provided by private “for profit” organisations with wealthy investors and ever demanding shareholders.
If we can learn anything from this pandemic it must be that public service delivery of this care, with established staffing levels, safe skill-mix levels and decent pay for workers rooted in the community is the only fair future for elder care services.
It is beyond doubt that the failure of successive governments to invest in health, coupled with ideologically driven cutbacks and outsourcing policies, has led to critical failures in patient care systems.
The time is now for these systems to be reimagined to make sure we, as a society, don’t go back to the tried and tested care models of the past and build an inclusive and democratic dialogue about the nature, operation and delivery of all our public services.
“It is the fight for equality upon which racial justice is built. Without economic equality we cannot hope to stamp out racism and xenophobia”, writes SIPTU Equality activist and SIPTU Health Division member Yvonne Mefor as she reflects on racism and its impacts in this weeks Sunday Read.
As we watch events unfold in the United States in the wake of yet another unjust killing of a black person, we must take heart in the hope that is being unfurled by the activism of society in calling out these injustices of racism.
Racism in our workplaces and communities is not always visible it often lingers in the air, so it would be wrong to say that it does not exist in Irish society.
It is important to emphasize the effects that racism and racial conflict have on the emotional and mental state of those affected by this injustice. When institutional and structural racism become a continuum chipping away at people’s social and physical components the end result can be a mental and emotional crisis. Interpersonal racism is often forgotten in the scheme of the general health and wellbeing of the individuals.
The impact racism has on ethnic and racial minority peoples’ health and wellbeing makes it a public health issue and a central component of the political agenda worldwide.
The World Health Organisation framework to strengthen health equities globally and within countries is based on the social determinants of health. This framework highlights how social stratification influences early life and the social and physical environments in which individuals develop and interact. Among these structural factors, biases and values within society, social position, ethnicity and race, and psychosocial factors are central determinants of the distribution of health and wellbeing in our society.
It is important that institutional, emotional and mental racism are stamped out here in Ireland. In the words of Angela Davis, “Racism is systematic, its outbursts are not isolated incidents”.
Although many say that racism is borne out of hate it is in fact inequality that is a root cause of racism. Inequality allows people to perceive others as being less than them, for some people to feel superior and to actively exclude other people in our communities. It is inequality amongst marginalised groups, such as the travelling community and those in direct provision that exacerbates this.
It is the fight for equality upon which racial justice is built. Without economic equality we cannot hope to stamp out racism and xenophobia.
As a trade union activist, I know that unions have a critical role to play in promoting fairness, equality and freedom from violence for all workers, regardless of age, race, religion, ability, sex, gender identity and gender expression, or sexuality.
The collective action of working people through their union fighting for equality can have a profound effect on eradicating all forms of discrimination, racism and xenophobia not only in our workplaces but also in our society. As unions we can educate and empower our members to fight against racism and xenophobia so that all workplaces are welcoming and inclusive.
Through SIPTU’s Migrant Workers Support Network our union has built on its long tradition of anti-racism to ensure that we maintain a culture of inclusiveness, equality and solidarity amongst our members.
Asylum seekers have endured years of exclusion and mistreatment by the Irish state through the inhumane direct provision system. SIPTU’s work with the Movement of Asylum Seekers in Ireland (MASI) has seen our union reach out to those in direct provision in their fight for their human rights to be respected. SIPTU’s hosting of MASI’s first annual conference in 2019 saw our union provide practical help as well as moral support to one of the most marginalised groups in our society.
Throughout the current public health crisis, our union has continued to work closely with organisations such as the Migrant Rights Centre Ireland (MRCI) highlighting the work of undocumented people including workers in the care sector and representing the interests of workers in the meat industry.
It is important that the voice of those impacted first hand by racism and xenophobia are listened to and amplified. With our union we ask others to be our ally in bringing to light racism in Irish workplaces, communities and society. We know that these conversations are uncomfortable sometimes, that they evoke feelings of both sadness and anger at the injustices being inflicted, but it is only by working together in solidarity, united by our common fight for equality that we can truly change our society for the better.
SIPTU Health representatives have today (Wednesday, 25th March) expressed concerns over the increase in the number of health workers who have tested positive for COVID-19 virus. The numbers confirmed by the Department of Health indicate that health care workers make up 26% of all cases identified in the State.
SIPTU Divisional Organiser, Paul Bell, said: “The official figures show that health care workers make up 26% of all COVID-19 cases so far identified by public health officials. 63% of these cases were not travel related and the median age is 45 years old for those infected. SIPTU members have said that the numbers are related to the availability of Personal Protection Equipment (PPE). Our members are reporting that PPE is not readily available to all health workers in the quantities required. This issue must be given high priority as some hospital departments are now telling SIPTU representatives that stock rooms have no PPE left and health workers are resorting to re-using equipment normally only fit for single use. This situation is entirely unacceptable.”
Paul Bell also called on the Government to urgently review its approach to testing all health workers for COVID-19 regularly.
“While we are not being critical of the Government’s efforts to lead the country through this crisis we must express the deep concerns of our members. If we are to learn from the experiences of other countries which have successfully combatted the coronavirus surge in hospitals it must be to ensure the health and safety of all workers caring for COVID-19 patients.
“In other health services such as those in South Korea and Hong Kong, the coronavirus has been more effectively contained with the frequent testing of all health workers through a dedicated monitoring system. This can ensure that the virus does not spread more widely and that the maximum number of health workers are available for duty 100% of the time.”
He added: “Getting these critical elements of COVID-19 control right can only help public health officials bring this public health emergency to an earlier end.”
SIPTU representatives have tonight (Wednesday 4th December) demanded the introduction of an emergency hand-over protocol to assist ambulance crews who are unable to hand over patients to hospital staff due to overcrowding and lack of bed capacity.
The call comes as the Medical Director of the National Ambulance Service, Professor Cathal O’Donnell, told an inquest into the death of Margaret Callaghan today that the issue of ambulance hand-over delay is “endemic” and it is getting worse.
SIPTU Health Division Organiser, Paul Bell said: “Our members have again expressed their deep concerns that the overcrowding crisis is obstructing them from doing their jobs effectively and they have demanded that an emergency handover protocol is put in place immediately to deal with it. We have an unacceptable situation where ambulance professionals and very expensive equipment is being held up for hours while other patients need immediate care. This is not sustainable and the Minister for Health needs to get involved before more lives are tragically lost. We need an immediate contingency plan to deal with this once and for all.”
He added: “We also need to see a dramatic increase in bed capacity to alleviate overcrowding and trolley pressure and to assist our members in the National Ambulance Service in the hand-over of patients.”
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