Ambulance strike: The pay doesn't recognise our work and education standards
SIPTU ambulance workers picket at the Kinsale Road roundabout in Cork on Tuesday. Picture: Chani Anderson
Patients face risks every day because of an understaffed ambulance service, unions warned, as hundreds of Cork-based paramedics joined over 100 protests nationwide.
Siptu and Unite pushed back against concerns from the HSE around risks to patients, saying they did not want to strike but felt they had no other choice. The 24-hour stoppage continues until 8am on Wednesday alongside a rolling work-to-rule.
The dispute centres on what unions say is a failure of management to implement a 2020 roles and responsibilities review. They also say a 5% pay increase recommended under the benchmarking II process has not been delivered.
Hospitals and other services have ambulance cover at 46% of the normal numbers until 8am. Cork City-based paramedic Colin O’Leary was among over 50 people striking at the Kinsale Road roundabout.
"The recommendations from the report were that the ambulance service or the HSE should implement enhanced pay scales for the EMT, paramedic, and advanced paramedic clinical grades, but unfortunately, the HSE hasn't adopted or implemented those changes,” he said.
“However, our fight and our argument is that we are seeking recognition for the changes and modernisation that we have carried out over the last 15 years.
"We feel that there isn't any appreciation for the changes we have agreed to undertake by professionalising the service, including a massive overhaul to the education standard, whereby you now have paramedics and advanced paramedics educated to degree and master's level, but unfortunately, the pay doesn't recognise that.”
Also in Cork, Siptu health division organiser Natasha Linehan Treacy said union members are “very despondent, upset, and distraught that they had to not go to work this morning and provide the service for the HSE, and for the public”.
She called on the HSE to make a reasonable offer.
Some 102 pickets were in place under Siptu and Unite.
John McCamley, Siptu Ambulance Sector organiser, insisted patients did not face risks on Tuesday, saying: “I’ve been on pickets where people left a picket line to get in an emergency ambulance and deal with a call today. That’s even above the cover that we have.”
However, he warned: “Every day there’s a risk because of understaffing in the ambulance service. Strike or no strike, there aren’t enough units to deal with emergencies as it is. The service’s own report indicates they need to double their staffing figures to deal with the calls every year.”
Low pay is affecting recruitment, he said. "You are not going to do three years in college and eight years on the frontline to earn a top rate of €47,000. That’s it for a paramedic.”
He called on the HSE to recognise the work paramedics do, stressing this was all highlighted in the 2020 review.
“We don’t want to be on strike,” he said, adding that whatever mechanism for talks is offered, they will be happy to join.
“Next week we’ve a 48-hour stoppage and then the week after that a three-day stoppage, and then rolling strikes after that.”
His concerns were echoed by Domhnaill Joyce, Siptu representative to the National Ambulance Service.
He was on picket lines at the largest base in the country in Dublin.
While people are “dedicated to their work”, he said he also knows paramedics leaving for the prison service and An Garda Síochána.
“I know one person who was an advanced paramedic, and he actually left and went to drive a train because the conditions were better. So you lose that skill and experience, that can’t be replaced,” he said.
Chief executive of national organisation for older people, ALONE, Sean Moynihan said: “We have deep respect for the work ambulance crews do and the excellent service they provide in very challenging conditions.
“Older people living alone can be particularly vulnerable during periods of disruption, and it’s vital that both sides work together to reach a resolution quickly.”
Earlier on Tuesday, the president of the Irish Association of Emergency Medicine and CUH consultant, Professor Conor Deasy, told Newstalk Breakfast: “We need this dispute to be resolved very quickly. It should never have gotten to this point. It's dangerous for patients. There's no question.”
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