Ambulance workers have the same right to withdraw their labour as any other Irish employee, but the nature of the job adds a potency to industrial action and with that comes responsibilities
This week’s 24-hour National Ambulance Service stoppage – from 8am on Tuesday until 8am on Wednesday – appears to have passed without any significant mishap. Major incidents – which account for around a quarter of ambulance call-outs – were responded to, as was the plan.
Dublin Fire Brigade’s ambulance service operated as normal, further muting the impact of the strike. Non-emergency users of the service outside Dublin were inconvenienced.
Further stoppages are in the offing – a 48-hour strike is planned for May 19th and a 72-hour action from May 26th – to put pressure on the Government to reopen an agreement reached earlier this year.
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The Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) brokered a deal in July between the HSE and the unions, SIPTU and Unite. The agreement offered pay rises of between three and 14 per cent, on top of a 9.25 per cent increase under the 2024-2026 public service pay agreement.
The additional increases aimed to address a long-standing grievance about how pay for ambulance workers has not matched the dramatic change in the role, which has a starting salary of around €33,000
The WRC deal was rejected by union members because it included a commitment to pay and grade reforms in the future. From the employees’ point of view, they were being asked to buy a pig in a poke, when what they sought was recompense for changes already made.
At some stage a solution will have to be found. The most obvious route forward in the short term is the involvement of the Labour Court, which has now intervened
Both sides now need to engage with this process. A solution may, in time, form part of the successor to the current public sector pay deal, which expires in July.
