THE Minister for Health, Mr Noonan, has welcomed the decision by 1,700 medical laboratory technicians and radiographers to defer their threatened strike.
Instead, they are to enter conciliation talks with the Labour Relations Commission on a pay claim under the restructuring clause of the Programme for Competitiveness and Work.
Mr Noonan denied yesterday that the nurses award was leading to the unravelling of public service pay policy. He said any remaining fears in Government that the nurses award would be passed on to other grades had been allayed by the latest Labour Court recommendation on the paramedics dispute.
He was speaking after addressing the IMPACT union's divisional conference for health workers. He told delegates that the Cabinet had agreed on Tuesday to sanction payment of the Labour Court award to paramedics, if they voted to accept it.
The court issued the award last week and 3,500 paramedics, who were claiming pay parity with nurses, called off their strike as a result.
They are currently balloting on the award, which is worth between 5.5 and 14.5 per cent.
Referring to the technicians and radiographers, Mr Noonan said the LRC had made important interventions in the nurses dispute and that of the paramedics. He hoped its services could now be used to achieve a satisfactory outcome for these other groups.
It had been expected, in view of the overwhelming vote for industrial action by both groups, that they would serve strike notice on the health services from next Thursday. The core issue in dispute is how much productivity they are willing to give and how much management can offer in return.