Staff in health groups to get €1,000 pay rise as strikes are averted

Planned strikes by staff in State-funded organisations providing health and social services have been averted following a new deal on pay restoration reached on Thursday.

Unions said members in about 250 organisations, which are known as Section 39 agencies, would benefit from the breakthrough reached after talks at the Workplace Relations Commission.

Under the deal the staff will receive a €1,000 increase in January.

As part of a second phase they will receive a sum equal to 50 per cent of outstanding restoration in June.

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Unions and the HSE will reconvene at the start of the second quarter next year to discuss the date of application of a final instalment.

This round of talks will also deal with claims by unions for retrospective payments.

The dispute centred on the restoration of pay which was cut following the economic crash for personnel in organisations providing health and social care service which receive State grant aid.

The unions contend that while Section 39 organisations were urged to cut staff pay in line with reductions in remuneration to public servants during the austerity years, the personnel involved have not seen pay restoration unlike direct State employees.

A deal on pay restoration for staff in 50 larger Section 39 organisations had been agreed in 2019. However the issue of payments for those in the other 250 agencies remained outstanding.

Fórsa official Catherine Keogh said the agreement was a significant breakthrough for Section 39 workers.

“This has been an exceptionally challenging year for these workers,” she said.

“Our one-day strike took place on February 14th, which was just a few weeks before the Covid-19 crisis hit, and these are the workers whose professionalism and experience was called upon like never before in response to that crisis.

“This is a welcome breakthrough, and some good news at the end of a long and very difficult year for them.”

Siptu divisional organiser Adrian Kane said that this was the first significant breakthrough in this long running dispute: "This interim settlement is well overdue, but it delivers money into the pockets of our members' pockets from next month and that is critically important.

“The issue of parity of treatment with colleagues in the larger section 39 employments hasn’t gone away and when the parties reconvene again at the WRC in 2021 Siptu will be fighting to ensure that all monies outstanding from our members are paid in full,” he said.

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions is to write to Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly seeking that membership of the Dialogue Forum with Voluntary Bodies be increased to include union representatives. Unions say this forum can contribute to the resolution of the long-term structural issues in the sector and their inclusion is consistent with the commitments in the programme for government to wider and deeper social dialogue.