Planned strike action to have direct impacts on service users in Cork

TALKS at the Workplace Relations Commission are continuing late this evening in a bid to avert planned strike action involving thousands of agency healthcare and social workers across the community and voluntary sector.

Up to 5,000 workers employed across 18 community and voluntary agencies around the country are set to take part in the planned strike tomorrow. These will include staff at St Luke’s Nursing Home, Cobh Community Hospital, Enable Ireland, the Irish Wheelchair Association, and St Joseph’s Foundation in Cork.

The action is set to have direct impacts on service users.

Area manager south for the Irish Wheelchair Association, Martin McCarthy, said the association’s three community centres across Cork, — situated in Blackrock, Mallow, and Clonakilty — will all be affected.

“These centres will not be open for services and no transport will be running, impacting many people and their families across the county,” he said.

“The assisted-living service in the community will be greatly affected by this action also.”

The action is being taken over a pay gap between agency workers and HSE staff, which unions say is leading to retention issues.

Fórsa, Siptu, and Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) members had called on the Government to come to the negotiating table and “end the pay inequality” that has led to the planned strike action, but despite last-minute talks today at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC), it was decided that the strike would go ahead.

Workers voted to take industrial action following a breakdown of WRC talks in July after what they have described as years of pay disparity between workers who are employed directly by the State and their counterparts working in Section 39 (health and disability services), Section 56 (services to children), and Section 10 (homeless services) community services.

While these agencies are largely State-funded, workers employed in the community and voluntary sector are on different terms and conditions than their HSE counterparts.

'Staff distressed at prospect of strike action'

Mr McCarthy said that the Irish Wheelchair Association and other Section 39 agencies “are not looking for anymore just the same as our counterparts in the HSE who fund us to provide services on their behalf”.

He added: “Staff at the IWA and service users are distressed by the prospect of strike action but the unresolved issue of pay parity can no longer be accepted at any reasonable level.”

Speaking to The Echo, Cork-based industrial relations officer for the INMO, Liam Conway, said the pay differential between Section 39 organisations and the HSE is more than 10%.

“Some workers haven’t seen any pay rise since 2008,” said Mr Conway.

“It’s a great unfairness, and members are seeking equal pay for equal work.

“The Government offered 5% previously, but talks collapsed and the strike really is about securing the future of these services and also, it’s a huge issue in terms of recruitment and retention.

“Without these increases, we’re going to see continual issues in terms of staffing and resources for these services.

“Many of the employers are reiterating the unions’ position that without these pay increases, they simply will not be able to staff services going forward, and there’s a huge concern in relation to the funding model provided by the Government to Section 39 organisations as well.”

Government response urged

Describing tomorrow's planned strike action as “a pivotal day”, Mr Conway called on the Government to “get real” and respond to the crisis in these sectors which he said are predominantly older persons and intellectual disability services.

Chief executive of the Disability Federation of Ireland John Dolan said that if the strike goes ahead, “it will be disastrous at a number of levels, not least for disabled people and for their families”.

He said: “No one wants this strike, least of all the disabled people, the workers, and the disability organisations, but they have all watched what inadequate funding has done to their services and to the sector for the past number of years.

“Sadly, it had to come to this.”

Labour Party candidate in the South East Ward Peter Horgan appealed to the Government to step in, describing these workers’ demands as “modest”.

“Government is the paymaster,” he said. “They can easily resolve this dispute and start treating these vital workers with respect. The budget last week made no mention of these workers. None.”

He described these workers as “the backbone of our social care system” and said that it is “an absolute dereliction of duty from the Government that we are going to face this action on Tuesday”.

A spokesperson for Cork Kerry Community Healthcare (CKCH) told The Echo: “HSE Cork Kerry Community Healthcare Disability Services have engaged with the agencies funded by the HSE in respect of the industrial action, which is due to commence on October 17, 2023.

“Although CKCH Disability Services is an administration service and does not have staff which can be redeployed to support persons impacted by the industrial action, it has engaged with each relevant agency in respect of contingency planning and has noted that each agency has a plan in place in respect of the prioritisation of services.

“CKCH Disability Services acknowledge, with regret, the potential impact on people with disabilities and their families or carers, as a result of the industrial action.”