Staff in State-supported health and care agencies vote on strike

Staff in State-supported organisations providing health and social care are to go on strike from February 12th if they back proposals for industrial action in a ballot.

Siptu said the HSE service plan for next year, which was published on Wednesday, did not provide its 8,000 members in so-called Section 39 agencies with a roadmap to pay restoration.

It said staff believed a strike was now inevitable and services would be affected.

Siptu said staff in many Section 39 bodies experienced pay cuts similar to those imposed on public service personnel providing health and social care services after the economic crash.

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However, it argued that unlike public servants working in the health and social care sectors, those employed in Section 39 organisations had not been offered pay restoration proposals.

The Government has contended that staff in Section 39 bodies are not public servants and that while the State provides grants, pay is a matter for the employers themselves.

Siptu said it is currently balloting staff in 10 Section 39 agencies.

Siptu Health Division Organiser Paul Bell said: “Section 39 workers feel completely abandoned by this Government. They are disappointed and frustrated at the lack of any specific actions, in the HSE Service Plan for 2018, to address the issue of pay justice for all Section 39 workers.”

"The key players in the Department of Health, the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the HSE have demonstrated their utter contempt for the most vulnerable health and social care workers in the country by omitting Section 39 workers from any financial provision in the Service Plan for 2018.

He said this served “only to harden Section 39 workers’ resolve during their current ballot for industrial action”.

He said if proposals for strike action are accepted, staff will stage a work stoppage on Monday, February 12th.

“It is unfortunate, but the feeling on the ground is that this strike is now inevitable,” he said.

"Our members are now in the intolerable situation where the Labour Court has issued eight recommendations supporting their claims for full pay restoration while the Government of the day refuses to engage in a process that could resolve their plight."