Staff at 999 call centres to stage second strike

Some staff operating the 999 emergency call answering service will conduct a 12 hour work stoppage on April 7th with the possibility of further action still under consideration.

Operators in one of the State’s three emergency 999 call centres staged an initial 12 hour strike at the Navan call centre last month while the other two in Dublin and Ballyshannon operated as normal.

It is not yet clear how many centres will be involved in next month’s strike.

A spokesman for the Communications Workers Union (CWU) said the workers are seeking the introduction of an €11.50 per hour “living wage” as well as an “immediate end to unnecessary and punitive suspensions, the negotiation of a fair corrective action policy, a fair on-call policy and collective bargaining”.

The contract for the emergency call answering service was awarded to BT Ireland in 2009 by the Department of Communications. BT then outsourced the work to Conduit Global.

In a statement on Tuesday night, Conduit Global said it “strongly regrets” the decision by the CWU to take industrial action.

“Conduit Global’s employees have represented themselves in successfully driving continuous improvement during recent rounds of consultation,” it said.

“In light of the resolution of so many concerns, it appears that the CWU is choosing to place its own interests over critical public services. The majority of the 999 employees are not members of the CWU and are instead committed to direct engagement with us, and to the safety and security of Irish citizens.

“We strongly urge the CWU to recognise the positive steps that have been taken and reconsider its decision to take industrial action.”