The unofficial strike of some craftworkers at Dublin hospitals yesterday passed off without patient care being affected.
The union leadership again strongly condemned the unofficial action and said most craftworkers were "extremely angry" at what they saw as an undemocratic attempt to undermine the balloting process which was about to get under way on the recent Labour Court recommendation.
However, the picketers maintained they had every right to strike and continued to criticise their leadership, contending the unions had come back with the same offer again and still with the same conditions attached.
Mr Paddy Coughlan, chairman of the Local Authority and Health Boards Craft Group of Unions, said the majority of craftworkers had worked normally and ignored the pickets. A spokesman for the Health Services Employers' Agency said there had been pickets on a number of Dublin hospitals but the effect had not been "too severe". Most non-nursing staff passed the pickets and reported for work. However, the three hospitals in Sligo were more severely affected when some staff refused to pass the pickets.
The Eastern Health Board also agreed the strike had not affected hospitals to any serious degree. Pickets were placed on Loughlinstown, St Ita's, St Brendan's and Cherry Orchard hospitals. A spokesman said: "There hasn't been any effect on patient care; appropriate care has been maintained."
Mr Coughlan said: "The undemocratic nature of this unofficial action is best highlighted by St James's Hospital, where on Saturday last the craftworkers voted by a margin of two to one not to support the unofficial industrial action. Yet they turned up for work this morning to be confronted by unofficial pickets which have clearly no democratic mandate. We know from the contacts we have made this morning with our shop stewards that St James's Hospital is not an isolated case, as is borne out by the fact that the majority of workers are passing these irresponsible pickets."
He said when the craftworkers get their ballot papers and information literature within the next few days, they would see the terms are by far the best of any analogue agreement to date. The amount negotiated was only 20p short of the £25.26 a week claimed by the Craft Union Group. There were also good non-pay benefits included, such as an additional three days' holidays to be phased in over the next three years, a once-off payment of £200 for the purchase of tools, the prospect of additional promotions and changes in the sick pay scheme.