AMBULANCE personnel are expected to vote overwhelmingly to reject pay increases offered under the restructuring clause of the Programme for Competitiveness and Work. The 530 workers involved provide emergency and routine ambulance services outside Dublin.
The National Ambulance Council of SIPTU recommends rejection of the terms. It says acceptance could widen the gap between the pay of provincial personnel and that of ambulance personnel in Dublin. Under the terms on offer, the maximum of a provincial driver's pay scale would rise from £11,900 a year to £13,528.
Most drivers earn 50 to 60 per cent more as a result of shift premiums, on-call allowances and overtime, but they must work a six or seven-day week to do so.
The new top of the basic scale would bring provincial drivers into line with their Dublin colleagues but the Dublin ambulance drivers are still negotiating their own restructuring increase under the PCW. Provincial drivers fear that if they accept the proposals they will fall further behind.
Because of the restrictive nature of local bargaining under the new national agreement, Partnership 2000, they say it could be after 2001 before they would catch up. SIPTU regional secretary Mr Brendan Hayes expects the recommendation of the ambulance council to be accepted.
If ambulance personnel reject the terms, they could become the first major group of health workers after the nurses to become embroiled in a confrontation with the Government. Union sources say if the offer to nurses could be stretched from £10 million to £80 million, under the restructuring clause of the PCW, there must be more available for other grades as well.
A spokesman for the Health Service Employers Association said yesterday that both sides had concluded a deal before Christmas and the association was disappointed to hear it was now being voted on with a recommendation for rejection from SIPTU. While management accepted that provincial drivers had a linkage with Dublin and it was attempting to address these pay concerns, the union seemed preoccupied with tomorrow's problems.
He added that the union would be in breach of procedures if it decided on a strike ballot, in the event of the current terms being rejected. The next step should be a referral to the Labour Court or some other form of adjudication, to resolve differences.
If the terms are accepted, ambulance personnel would be entitled to considerable back money, some of it dating from August 1994.