20/05/2008

30,000 Health Workers Begin Industrial Action

Patients across Ireland could face massive disruption when almost 30,000 health workers begin industrial action.

The Impact Trade Union said the action is in response to the HSE's recruitment restrictions on staff and services, which has resulted in 2,700 vital jobs not being filled. Members voted overwhelmingly for action late last month claiming the ban was having a devastating effect on services.

The action, involving social care workers, professionals, therapists, administrative and managerial staff and a small number of nurses, will be supported by a nationwide lunchtime protest by Impact members on June 11.

Impact’s Health and Welfare National Secretary Kevin Callinan said: "The purpose of the action is to combat the effects of the HSE recruitment restrictions...and the way in which they are impacting on services in hospitals and indeed the community.

"It is a dispute not about money, but protecting the services in which our members and health workers generally work. And it's about trying to ensure that the HSE and government delivers on its own legislation, its own policies and its own commitments."

The union said the action will immediately hit the HSE bureaucracy, with staff refusing to undertake tasks, functions or responsibilities linked to the vacant posts.

(DW)


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