Sick patients are set to face chaotic scenes in hospitals nationwide as 10,000 healthcare support staff will strike for 24 hours over pay.
Staff from 38 hospitals will take to the picket line over what SIPTU described as a failure of the Government to increase their wages following findings of a job evaluation scheme.
Reacting to SIPTU’s decision to go ahead with the strike, Health Minister Simon Harris said: “Well I find it quite extraordinary that a trade union would bring our health service to a point of such difficulty without even going to the Labour Court.
“The management side has engaged in really good faith on this basis and made an offer and that offer would see payments being made to people starting in November of this year.
“It’ll seem bizarre to patients right up and down the country that such chaos will be brought to our health service without even trying to resolve this.
“I don’t think that’s acceptable to the people across the country.”
The 24-hour stoppage comes after talks between health service management and SIPTU failed to come to a resolution at the Workplace Relations Commission.
SIPTU have said following the findings of the scheme, some €16.2 million was owed to members yet the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform had only offered €1.2 million.
Labour Party Health spokesperson, Alan Kelly TD, has accused Fine Gael of letting down healthcare workers.
He said: “Unfortunately, the Government failed to address the outstanding issues of the dispute and now appear to be attempting to bully the Union and workers into the Labour Court.
“The Minister for Health is attacking his own workers and coming across as weak by allowing the Department of Public Expenditure to run his Department.”
People Before Profit TD and former hospital worker Gino Kenny encouraged the public to support hospital workers as they have a right to stand up to the government because “they deserve respect and better pay.”
SIPTU’s health divisional organiser Paul Bell said the union has run out of time and the State had “abused” the process and “never meaningfully engaged” with union representatives.
A spokesman for the HSE said: “Patients are being contacted by their local hospital or healthcare facility in the event that their scheduled procedure or service will be affected by the dispute.
“While every effort will be made to minimise impact on patients, industrial action involving these essential staff will have a significant impact on services.”
Meanwhile, apart from today’s (Wednesday) strike, SIPTU has planned a further three back-to-back strikes on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday next week.
