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SIPTU workers could join nursing strike next month

Some 10,000 hospital support staff are expected to vote in favour of strike action next month. Tr...
Newstalk
Newstalk

07.52 13 Feb 2017


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SIPTU workers could join nursi...

SIPTU workers could join nursing strike next month

Newstalk
Newstalk

07.52 13 Feb 2017


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Some 10,000 hospital support staff are expected to vote in favour of strike action next month.

Trade union SIPTU has been balloting its members, with the results expected later Monday.

If the action goes ahead it will start March 7th - the same day that 30,000 nurses begin a work-to-rule.

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Nurses and midwives from the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) are also set to take nationwide action from March 7th.

It comes after the INMO executive council rejected staffing, recruitment and retention proposals put forward by the Health Service Executive (HSE).

The council claims these are "totally inadequate" and that it will take "an immediate and continuous work to rule" involving nurses and midwives working to contract.

This will mean a ban on overtime, no cross-cover or redeployment to fill-in for absent colleagues.

Support staff also involved in the potential strike include porters, cleaners and security personnel.

Irish Times industry correspondent, Martin Wall, says they want access to a job evaluation scheme.

"If people believe that the work they do - the role - has actually expanded over time, they it can be re-assessed again.

"And if it is found to have got more difficult, more arduous...it'll qualify for pay increases", he told Newstalk Breakfast.


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