Sir, – During the course of the talks, the Government informed the trade unions participating that “There would be dire consequences if an agreement was not reached”.
That was a golden opportunity for the unions to call the bluff of the Government, by insisting that new legislation in the areas of better employment rights for its union members, and a “Whistle-blowing Act”, for all, be enacted immediately, before the talks would resume.
It is now most important that our trade union executive stay away from accepting “golden carrots” from the Government. The trade unions could start by opening a transparent and accountable policy in not having the counting of ballot papers behind closed doors, and just like in a general election, showing the true result in a public arena. – Yours,etc,
Sir, – The proposed Croke Park Extension is an unfair, inequitable attack on the income of public servants and in particular 24/7 frontline workers.
We have already reduced, reused, recycled, extended and expanded in the face of the continuing recruitment ban. Brendan Howlin asks us “to swallow” this Croke Park Extension and says it will be the last cut – until the next cut? We have already been hit twice, cut by 14 per cent and now a further 10.6 per cent. Nurses have lost 5,000 whole-time equivalents.
Rationalisation, reconfiguration, reorganisation, restructuring, seamless redeployment, further headcount reduction, and in spite of Government’s recognition that shared working hours are hugely beneficial to both worker and patient, management reserves the right to refuse access to work sharing arrangements.
As a nurse I strongly believe that no amount of any of the above can lead to anything but unsafe care for patients and staff, physical and mental.
Bonus payments, they say, for who? Those who caused this. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – Further to the delusional, ivory-tower comments from Dr Jonathan Healy (February 28th). As a private sector worker of a similar age to those mentioned by Mr Healy and with a young family, my husband and I find our household income has dropped by 50 per cent compared to 2009.
We bought our home when property prices were at their peak and are trapped in negative equity, paying a very large mortgage on a house worth over 50 per cent less than the purchase price. We don’t have and never did have flexitime and can be made redundant at any time – So what’s Dr Healy’s problem! Yours, etc,