Paramedics ‘given no choice’ but to strike amid pay dispute with HSE

Paramedics are beginning to picket hospitals today as unions say the HSE has not engaged with them. File picture: Chani Anderson

Health unions say the HSE has not engaged in efforts to resolve a pay dispute which will see paramedics picketing hospitals in strike action from early today.

The HSE says it expects “a very challenging day”, with a National Ambulance Service official warning that people may need to make their own way to hospitals.

The strike follows frustration for Siptu and Unite trade union members at “ongoing failures” to act on recommendation made in a 2020 independent review, which looked at changes to the roles of ambulance workers.

The unions say qualifications, clinical responsibilities, and operational duties of personnel have expanded significantly over the last two decades.

The ‘Roles and Responsibilities Review’ “recommended enhanced pay scales to reflect the growing professionalisation of the service” but “those recommendations have not been implemented”, according to the unions.

Eoin Drummey, Unite regional officer in Waterford, said: “The 24-hour strike action is commencing nationally at 8am.

“And in terms of any approach or intervention [from the HSE], there hasn’t been any attempts made. There is not one of our members who actually want to be on picket lines. But given the consistent position from the Government and the minister for health, they have been given no choice.”

Paramedics 'have transformed ambulance service'

He said ambulance staff are paid “substantially less” than other healthcare workers at a comparable level: “Our members have helped transform the ambulance service from what was primarily a patient transport model to a modern pre-hospital emergency care service.”

Paramedics often treat people at accident scenes or in the patients’ homes. Many have completed degrees, including at University College Cork.

“The 2020 review recognised that upskilling and modernisation,” Mr Drummey said.

The review was jointly commissioned by the National Ambulance Service, Siptu, and the HSE in 2018.

About 2,000 Siptu members are taking part in the action, which began with a rolling work-to-rule yesterday.

Siptu ambulance sector organiser John McCamley said: “All we are asking is that, like other health professionals, their training and qualifications are respected and recognised in an appropriate pay and grading structure which takes account of the major workplace changes which have taken place over the last 20 years.”

Further stoppages planned

Further stoppages are scheduled for May 19 and 26, as well as June, Siptu said.

The HSE said it and the Government accepted Workplace Relations Commission and Labour court recommendations last summer, but union members rejected the terms. Proposals included 3% to 14% pay improvements, on top of 9.25% under the public service agreement linked to agreed reforms, the HSE said.

National Ambulance Service clinical director Cathal O’Donnell told RTÉ people should call 999 “but it may be the case that they will get there quicker if they make their own way”.

Labour health spokeswoman Marie Sherlock described the ambulance service as “creaking at the seams because of understaffing and under-capacity”.

• Niamh Griffin, Health Correspondent