Paramedics to withdraw voluntary cover

Ambulance personnel are joining gardaí in withdrawing voluntary cover from public events in protest against the Croke Park deal.

A third of HSE paramedics — the 500 represented by the National Ambulance Service Representative Association (NASRA) — will take action from Friday of next week. They will withdraw use of their personal mobile phones, laptops and satellite navigation systems, for work purposes, and personnel will also refuse to make themselves available for coverage of sporting and other events they are not rostered for.

NASRA chairman Michael Dixon said the members felt they had been backed into a corner by the Croke Park II process and had no choice but to try to defend their pay.

“In taking the actions frontline paramedics are laying down a marker for the Government that they will not tolerate any further cuts in their pay, directly or through cuts in allowances, as proposed under the Croke Park II agreement,” he said.

“We have accepted a reduction in pay of up to 30%, punishing roster changes and extended hours. We have also engaged in continued professional development and seen the introduction of ‘green hours’ (unpaid hours accrued), continuous upskilling and far-reaching changes to work practices. Paramedics have nothing more to give.” The move follows similar action by rank and file gardaí who began last week to withdraw so-called ‘goodwill’ practices such as the use of personal communications equipment and volunteering availability for public events.

The Garda Representative Association’s central executive committee met yesterday to review the action and said it would continue indefinitely. GRA president John Parker also confirmed that Dublin’s St Patrick’s Day parade would be among the events targeted.

Members will refuse to make themselves available for overtime to provide security for the parade which is expected to attract half a million spectators on Sunday week.

The move means Garda management will have to rely on rostered gardaí on a day when the rosters are normally light, as Sundays usually see fewer gardaí scheduled to work.

It is likely they will have to pull in gardaí from outside the Dublin division or go through the logistical headache of diverting rostered gardaí to the parade and officially ordering non-rostered colleagues to replace them on normal policing duties.

John Parker said the executive was also re-examining concessions made by members under the first Croke Park agreement to see if they could continue to be honoured if their pay was cut under Croke Park II.

He said there was no waning in the members’ appetite to resist any further reduction in pay and conditions. “A lot of our members would want to go further than the actions we have agreed. A lot of anger is coming from the ground.”