Unrest in the country, including in the health sector, is simmering over the non-reinstatement of cut wages during the recession. There are indications that employees, including section 39, will go on strike demanding the reinstatement of the reduced pay.
It is estimated that the unrest in the workplace will further complicate the situation as Covid along with winter will poses a threat of contagious disease.
The trade unions have jointly warned that there will be industrial action if there is no pay restoration, including for public sector workers providing health and social services.
Trade unions representing the staff of the Section 39 bodies, including Forza, Siptu, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organization and Unite, are about to meet tomorrow and further steps will be considered at this meeting. The new move comes amid the useless talks between the health ministry and HSE on Tuesday.
Organizations, including SIPTU, are also frustrated with the WRC-related process. Employees of Section 39 organizations are trying to reinstate pay cuts that followed a financial collapse a decade ago.
There are about 300 Section 39 organizations in the country providing services on grants provided by HSE. Of these, an agreement was reached two years ago to restore the salaries of the employees of 50 bodies. But in the case of the rest, no action was taken.
The unions had hoped that the health department and HSE would present at Tuesday’s meeting information on the cost of restoring the salaries of workers in the remaining 250 organizations, but it didn’t happened.
Some government sources had previously estimated that it would cost up to 7 million. Procedures in this regard can be initiated only if this data is forwarded to the Department of Public Expenditure.
But a spokesman for Forsa said in a statement yesterday that the health ministry and the HSE had only a nominal start to the process of collecting the information.
Forsa said the dragging out of the health department and the HSE was “disgraceful”. They alleges that it was a deliberate attempt to delay the proceedings.
More than a thousand workers in Section 39 organizations went on a 24-hour strike last February demanding a pay restitution. But in the meantime, with the advent of Covid-19, the campaign came to a halt.
The Department of Health is committed to moving forward with WRC discussions regarding the pay restoration of the remaining Section 39 bodies.
The HSE is estimating the cost of the project. They said they would consult with the Public Expenditure Department once full details of the expenditure are available.
The Department of Health had in October 2018 reached an agreement with the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) to implement a pilot basis for the reinstatement of salaries for employees of 50 Section 39 organizations.
The process started in April 2019 and will be completed by October 2020 and October 2021. But in the case of the employees of the other 250 or so Section 39 organizations, nothing had changed positively.