Care workers' strike continues

Hundreds of mentally disabled people were today spending a second day away from their residential homes with no apparent breakthrough in talks over strike action by care workers.

Around 1,300 staff from IMPACT continued their strike over a pay dispute and pickets were set up outside several care homes.

Officials from a second trade union, Siptu, were preparing for a full hearing of the Labour Court on the same issue tomorrow. Siptu, which represents around 4,000 care workers, planned to go on strike but deferred the action pending the hearing.

If the outcome of the hearing is unsatisfactory to the union, the country's care industry would be plunged into chaos.

Already, residential homes in Galway and Dublin have been badly affected by the IMPACT action, with some managers calling the situation ‘‘disastrous’’.

Many elderly parents are having to care for their intellectually disabled middle aged children and some have complained that the level of emergency care is inadequate.

Areas in the midlands and the south are least affected as many staff there are Siptu affiliated.

IMPACT said the strike would go on until Minister for Health Micheal Martin intervened to secure a 20% pay rise.

But he has described the strike as ‘‘difficult to comprehend’’. The row broke out when child care workers were given pay rises of as much as 44% in April last year but no similar rise was provided for those working with mentally disabled people.

Talks between IMPACT and the Health Service Employment Agency broke down over the weekend, resulting in the industrial action.