Siptu stands down National Ambulance Service strike planned for next week

Siptu ambulance workers picket at the Kinsale Road roundabout in Cork as part of a nationwide paramedic strike. Picture: Chani Anderson

A planned 72-hour work stoppage for ambulance workers next week has been stood down, unions said, following progress in talks with the HSE.

An ongoing work-to-rule will be stood down at noon on Friday to allow the Labour Court process to continue.

Siptu Ambulance Sector Organiser John McCamley said on Friday: “While this engagement was difficult and challenging at times, we believe that significant progress has been made.” 

He said the process remains in place and said: “the Labour Court has requested more time to deliberate on some of the issues in dispute.” 

He confirmed the 72-hour strike planned for next week is now not going to happen. A separate work-to-rule in place for almost two weeks now has also been stood down.

This follows “constructive discussions” with the HSE at the Labour Court on Thursday.

"We are hopeful that this process will bring this longstanding dispute to a resolution,” he said.

Siptu and Unite workers had been engaged in a work-to-rule amid the dispute over pay and conditions and had already carried out a 24-hour work stoppage last week.

The unions suspended a planned 48-hour stoppage for this week as they entered into direct talks with the HSE at the Labour Court on Monday.

Those talks continued on Tuesday and Thursday.

Siptu represents about 90% of the paramedics and other emergency staff working with the National Ambulance Service involved in the dispute. Unite was also involved in the Labour Court talks on behalf of their members.

The unions took the industrial action after their members rejected a pay improvement deal offered by the HSE last year.

Siptu said the ongoing process is “regarding the HSE's failure to implement the recommendations of an independent report on updating ambulance workers' pay scales to reflect changes in their responsibilities and workloads over the last 20 years.”

The unions say qualifications, clinical responsibilities and operational duties of emergency medical technicians (EMT), paramedics, advanced paramedics, paramedic specialists and paramedic supervisors have expanded significantly in recent years.

They also say a 5% increase recommended under a previous process has not been delivered.

The unions want the HSE to drop pre-conditions around its previous pay proposal which critics have said would see a reduction in the number of trained paramedics in a crew, and because of changes to overtime, could see some pay decrease.

Unite spokesman Eoin Drummey also confirmed the move, which he said followed “extremely difficult and challenging” talks.

He said the union believed significant progress had been made over longstanding pay issues and all parties were awaiting recommendations from the Labour Court.