Industrial action hits crucial welfare support

CRUCIAL welfare support for people living in Cork and Kerry has had to be curtailed because of industrial action by community welfare officers.

dispute began on Thursday and, according to IMPACT trade union which represents the workers, is over the non-replacement of staff, leaving less workers to deal with more claims.

The union said that since last year seven posts have been lost in Cork and four in Kerry and while the HSE had promised in February to replace 6.5 whole-time equivalent posts, that had not happened. They said they were having to prioritise services because their workloads were mounting.

All the community welfare officer (CWO) clinics in the two areas are taking part in the action.

The HSE has confirmed that payments to people with no income, reduced income or “in need of urgent or exceptional payments” will continue to be paid by CWOs.

“However, there will be a delay in relation to the processing of new applications for rent/mortgage allowances and medical cards,” the HSE said.

It advised that for the duration of the action applicants should submit their application form for a rent/mortgage allowance or a medical card to their local CWO.

“Critical and emergency situations will be identified and processed as appropriate. All other applications will not be processed until the industrial action has been resolved.”

Mallow TD Sean Sherlock said his office had been inundated with people who had lost their jobs and desperately needed to avail of the services of a CWO.

“This is an industrial relations issue that needs to get sorted,” he said. “CWOs are swamped with work and it is impacting on the delivery of service. I think commonsense has to prevail here and if there are undue delays it requires more staff to deal with this.”

Meanwhile, MANDATE trade union members yesterday staged a protest outside the Barry’s Menswear store in Mallow, Co Cork claiming they are in a lockout position since the company closed its doors on June 15.

MANDATE industrial officer Caroline Clifford said the company had treated the workers appallingly and put them through unnecessary stress and turmoil.

“They have been left without wages, redundancy and they have also recently discovered that their pension contributions, which have been deducted at source, have not been paid since April 2008. It is frustration and disappointment that has led them to taking this action today,” she said.