8,000 health sector workers preparing for national strike over pay

More than 8,000 workers in the health and social services sector are preparing for nationwide strikes next month over a failure to restore their pay in line with the public sector.

The workers, members of Siptu, are employed in Section 39 companies. Workers in those companies are not public servants, but their employers are grant aided by the HSE to provide services.

Traditionally their pay has been linked to rates within the public service, mainly in the HSE. Siptu represents 8,000 Section 39 workers, while Impact represents a further 5,000.

While Impact remains in a dialogue phase Siptu has said it is now prepared to up its campaign to a national strike. “The Departments of Finance and Health are trying to convince themselves that this is going to go away," said Siptu health division organiser Paul Bell.

"Regrettably I think we will see a national strike of social and health service staff in the middle to end of January.” He said his members had been trying to secure their monies without impacting on services and service users.

“However, if the key ministers in Government departments are not prepared to commit to dialogue and a process of restoring our members’ pay, there is no option but to engage in industrial action which will unfortunately impact services and service users.” He also said he believed the HSE have a role to play as he said the HSE was “attempting to remain in the shadows when they have mechanisms to resolve this”.

The Labour Court recently issued a significant ruling in the Section 39 workers’ battle to secure the pay increases which are worth up to 7%. Through their union Siptu, it was pointed out to the court that workers in the Irish Wheelchair Association had been linked to the public sector rate and the workers had been forced to take pay cuts arising from Budget 2010 under the Haddington Road agreement.

However, they were not afforded the increases given to public servants in the most recent agreement. The union argued that HSE had direct influence on the pay levels of the IWA and, as such, if pay is restored to HSE employees and public servants in general, employees of the IWA should also benefit from restoration.

The employer argued that it was not in a financial position to meet the union’s claim. “The employer also stated that it was hindered in facilitating the unions claim as the Department of Health is of the view that individuals engaged by section 39 organisations, such as the IWA, are not employees of the HSE,” the court said. “Therefore, the Department is of the opinion that employees of the IWA are not entitled to the same terms and conditions regarding pay.”

The Labour Court ruled that, while it had “some sympathies for the difficulties the employer is experiencing”, it could not accept that they are a basis for not implementing pay restoration in line with the Public Service agreement. “The Court...is clear that the worker’s pay is clearly aligned with the HSE pay scales".

in a statement the Department of Health said it had been advised that notice of industrial action has not been served on any Section 39 employer. "In any event, as the HSE is not the employer, the Executive would not have a direct role in any such industrial action," said a spokesman.