Mayo hospital workers plan industrial action

NOTICE OF industrial action by some 80 support workers at a Co Mayo hospital was issued to the Health Service Executive yesterday over outsourcing and short-staffing.

The action by the Siptu members, including cleaners and caterers, at Mayo General Hospital, Castlebar, is due to begin on January 23rd.

The form of the industrial action has not yet been decided but will include public protest and will “not adversely affect patient care”, the union’s health division organiser, Paul Bell, said.

The action follows a proposal by the hospital management to outsource the cleaning work of retiring staff to private contractors, he said.

In November the union proposed to hospital management that home-help staff would cover the cleaning duties of eight retiring staff but this arrangement was not taken up, Mr Bell said.

Expanding the area covered by contract cleaners without engaging the union was a breach of the Croke Park agreement, he claimed.

The action is also being taken over short-staffing caused by the retirement of support staff ahead of February 29th, when new pension arrangements come into effect.

Mr Bell believed it would be the first time that members had taken industrial action over short-staffing.

Mr Bell accused the HSE of “manufacturing a crisis” by ignoring the situation.

The HSE had “refused to engage in any serious way” since meeting the union at the Labour Relations Commission in the middle of last year, he said.

The union “expects” the HSE will have “focused engagement” with it before industrial action starts, Mr Bell said.

A HSE spokeswoman said last night that no notice of industrial action had yet been received.

“We are in ongoing discussions with the union on this matter and have been for a considerable length of time,” she said. “Our priority at all times is to maintain a clean and hygienic environment which is fundamental to the provision of safe and high-quality care for all patients at Mayo General Hospital.”