Staff in 999 call centre to strike over pay, union recognition

Staff operating one of the State’s three 999 emergency call answering centres are to stage a 12-hour strike on the day before the general election.

The Communications Workers’ Union (CWU) said the work stoppage would begin at 8am on Thursday, February 25th. The dispute is over pay and trade union recognition.

The union said its members had decided to stage a work stoppage only in the 999 call centre in Navan. The other 999 centres in Ballyshannon and Dublin will operate as normal.

The contract for the emergency call answering service was awarded to BT Ireland in 2009 by the Department of Communications. BT then outsourced the work to Conduit Global.

The union said it wanted Conduit Global, to deal with a number of issues including the introduction of a pay rate of €11.50 per hour, an immediate end to unnecessary and punitive suspensions, and the negotiation of a fair corrective action policy, a fair on-call policy and collective bargaining.

Both BT and Conduit refuses to negotiate with the union.

Steve Fitzpatrick, general secretary of the CWU, said members working in the 999 call service “have taken this decision reluctantly but in the knowledge that they have exhausted every other avenue available to them.

“In doing so, they have ensured that the vital public service they deliver will not be impacted by their strike action,” he said.

Mr Fitzpatrick said the workers had raised their grievances using the company’s internal procedures but alleged this had been ignored.

"We have invited the company to the Workplace Relations Commission, which they refused to attend. And the CWU has written to Conduit/BT seven times offering to meet and each time they refused.

“In the absence of any meaningful engagement, members feel compelled to proceed with this action. Needless to say, the CWU remains open to dialogue and hopes that Conduit Global will take the same pride in this service as their staff do and enter discussions on the issues raised,” Mr Fitzpatrick said.