Hospital staff vote to take industrial action

NURSING AND care staff at the Central Mental Hospital in Dundrum have voted overwhelmingly in favour of industrial action following a dispute with management over reforms to be introduced under the Croke Park agreement.

More than 100 nursing and care staff took part in the ballot, which could precipitate industrial action at the 94-bed hospital from October 12th. The dispute centres on changes to the staff’s terms and conditions, which the Health Service Executive wants implemented from that date.

The changes include altered work patterns, longer working days for some staff and the elimination of paid meal breaks.

Under existing arrangements, staff must remain on the premises for meal breaks and be available to deal with emergencies.

Siptu has said it feared if staff were allowed to go off-site for meals, there may not be enough personnel to respond to emergencies and this could have safety implications for staff and patients.

Siptu nursing sector organiser Louise O’Reilly said yesterday the move to impose the new rosters represented a breach of the terms of the Croke Park agreement: “Our members are objecting to the imposition of a deadline when there has been no agreement on proposed changes to their terms and conditions of employment.

“It is our members’ view that the new work rosters proposed by management will result in times when care units will be depleted of staff to such an extent that there will not be sufficient people to respond to an emergency.”

She said the ballot was protective and industrial action would begin “unless the HSE steps back from these imposed changes”.

More than 90 per cent of the membership had voted in favour of industrial action. Industrial action could include non-cooperation with rosters, a ban on overtime or the withdrawal of labour, she said.

But she also said the union would attend a meeting next week convened by the Health Sector Implementation Body, a group responsible for driving changes in the sector under the Croke Park agreement, with a “positive approach”. “Staff genuinely don’t want to take industrial action, but they have been forced into it . . . by management,” she said.

Last night, the HSE said it noted the result of the ballot. “The HSE is in a process to implement change initiatives as provided for in the Public Service Agreement [Croke Park] and will continue in this regard,” its statement said.