Unions have said that the Government's drive towards privatisation could have a devastating effect and warned their participation in public partnership is at risk.
Addressing over 600 attendees at Siptu's annual National Delegate Conference in Tralee this morning, union president Jack O'Connor criticised the "privatisation juggernaut" and said that embracing hospital co-location would see public facilities being starved of resources.
"The most dramatic strategic shift of the balance against ordinary citizens, especially the ill and infirm, in over a generation has been the drive towards privatisation implicit in the move to co-locate hospitals," Mr O'Connor said.
He warned that although co-location had been marketed on the basis of freeing-up capacity in crowded general acute hospitals, "the ruthless law of the market will ultimately prevail".
Mr O'Connor claimed that the Government had failed to learn anything from the sale of Eircom and Aer Lingus, saying that those opposed to the privatisation of the national airline had been vindicated given that "near absolute control" of the aviation sector now rested with Ryanair.
The Siptu president also warned that its participation in social partnership was in question, due to the threat to security and quality of employment across the private and public sectors.
He criticised the Government for being one of only three EU countries that "refused to legislate for the principle of equal treatment for agency workers," pointing out that wage rates in one sector where use of agency workers was widespread, hotels and catering, had fallen in the first quarter of the year.
In the light of "the ongoing assault on security and quality of employment across the private and public sectors - the question of our ongoing participation in social partnership arises," he said.
"We must get serious about marshalling the resources needed to support workers who want to organise and demand their rights from employers who interpret the 'can-do' culture of modern Ireland as a licence to walk on others," he added.
In another speech, Ictu economic adviser Paul Sweeney also criticised the move towards co-location. "Firstly, as with past privatisations there is no great clamour or demand for this [and] the proponents have failed to produce a sound business case with compelling social and financial reasons," he said.
The decisions taken by the Siptu National Delegate Conference will provide the framework for the policies to be pursued by the union's national executive over the next two years.
