Some 2,000 hospital staff vote for strike

About 2,000 staff in a number of Dublin hospitals, who are represented by the trade union Siptu, are to stage strike action in the event of management moving to alter existing weekend working arrangements which attract premium payments.

Siptu members, who include porters, catering personnel, household staff, technical services employees engaged in the sterilisation of instruments and some workers in laboratories, voted last night by a margin of 95 per cent for strike action in a protective ballot.

The staff who were balloted work in Beaumont, St Vincent's University Hospital, the Mater, St Luke's in Rathgar, the National Maternity Hospital and Tallaght Hospital.

Siptu said that the personnel concerned were obliged to work on Saturdays and Sundays for which they received a premium payment.

Intern programme

The union’s health division organiser,

Paul Bell

, said last night that it moved to ballot members after management at St Vincent’s hospital signalled several weeks ago that it was proceeding with plans to change unilaterally existing roster and shift patterns. It said management planned to use staff taken on under an intern programme for support staff to carry out these weekend duties.

Mr Bell said Siptu had an understanding with health service management dating back to the original Croke Park agreement that this would not happen unless existing staff agreed to such changes.

He said the workers concerned were the lowest paid in the health service and they could lose up to one-third of their earnings if the weekend premium payments were ended.

Top-up payments

Mr Bell said members were extremely angry at the proposed cuts in light of the decision of the HSE to allow senior executives in some voluntary hospitals to retain controversial top-up payments which were being made in addition to normal salary.

He also linked the anger of members at proposed further cuts in earnings to a recent decision by health service management and the Government to offer increased salaries to hospital consultants employed after October 2012. New entrant consultants employed after that date had seen a 30 per cent reduction in salary imposed by the Government.

Mr Bell said there was an understanding under the Croke Park and Haddington Road agreements that if pay rises were on offer, priority would be given to the lowest paid.

Siptu is expected to meet with hospital management shortly to give notice of the strike ballot result. However, the strike will only go ahead in the event of the hospitals moving unilaterally to change the working arrangements for weekends.