Strike action planned for community and voluntary bodies in Mayo
UNIONS have served notice of a series of one-day strike actions in community and voluntary sector agencies in Mayo, Galway, Cork and Donegal later this month.
The action will take place in five employments in the community and voluntary sector providing social care, and will include action by community employment (CE) supervisors.
Action will take place on Wednesday and Thursday, September 21 and 22, as part of the ICTU-led Valuing Care, Valuing Community campaign.
The campaign aims to achieve improved terms and conditions of employment for health and social care professionals and other staff employed in agencies funded by the HSE and other State bodies, where staff are employed on lower pay and lesser conditions than equivalent grades in the HSE and other agencies.
Unions say urgent government action is needed to address the funding of organisations in the sector, to make pay improvements for staff, stem the high rate of staff exits each year and fulfil recruitment targets for vital health services, including disability and homeless services.
Industrial action ballots in each of the employments, conducted over the past few weeks, produced strong support for industrial action, up to and including strike action.
Notice has been served on the following employments for September 21: Irish Wheelchair Association Cork, St. Joseph's Foundation, and EmployAbility Cork.
It applies to the following on September 22: Western Care, Ability West, and selected community employment (CE) schemes in Donegal.
Research published last year by Fórsa trade union shows that very high annual staff exit rates, of up to 33% annually, is leading to increased recruitment costs and increasing pressure on existing staff to maintain services.
Fórsa national secretary Ashley Connolly said: “Government is failing to grasp the link between its chronic underfunding of the services we’re talking about and the failure to meet the HSE’s recruitment targets in, for example, disability services.
“The outgoing head of the HSE has acknowledged they’re having problems meeting targets for disability services nationally, including unfilled roles in 18 organisations funded by the State. This has led to service delivery issues and growing waiting lists,” she said.
SIPTU official Kevin Figgis added: “The HSE leans heavily on the community and voluntary sector to deliver these services. These are the same organisations struggling to attract enough qualified and experienced staff in a very tight labour market. Why? Because they can get better paid work elsewhere.”