Pulling the plug
22 November 2009The state’s public services will grind to a halt on Tuesday, unless a miraculous breakthrough in the on off talks between the government and the unions can prevent the planned nationwide public sector strike.
Rank-and-file gardaí will refuse to work any overtime, which has become an essential component of the force’s operations. The Garda Representative Association (GRA)has advised its 12,000 members that they may ‘‘use their discretion’’ and issue warnings to members of the public where they might otherwise issue a revenue-gathering fine.
Across the rest of the public sector, social welfare payments will be delayed; streets will not be swept; there will be recheduling of hospital appointments arising from the cancellation of all non-emergency procedures in 50 hospitals; and working parents will have to arrange childcare, as schools across the country are scheduled to stay shut.
In the health sector, more than 40,000 nurses and a further 1,200 ambulance personnel will provide emergency cover with only minor exceptions, while mounting strikes at all major public medical facilities nationwide.
In all, a significant majority of the country’s 300,000 public servants will picket their places of work, demanding that they should not be targeted again this year for reductions in their take-home pay.
As well as being unavailable for overtime, off-duty gardaí will join pickets with other members of the 24/7 Frontline Services Alliance, such as at hospitals, where they will stand next to nurses and ambulance crews, and outside places of detention alongside prison officers. GRA president Michael O’Boyce said the talks between government and gardaí were ‘‘little more than window-dressing’’.
He added that, from his association’s perspective, the government was unwilling to consider alternatives to the planned cuts of about 6.6 per cent of pay, or €90 million in the case of the Garda wage bill.
‘‘I have not seen this level of anger among gardaí since the 1990s.There is a huge demand for more action after Tuesday," he said.
Ambulance crews will provide emergency cover only, from midnight tomorrow. Michael Dineen, a member of the Siptu union which represents the 1,200 ambulance personnel, and chairman of the Association of Ambulance Personnel (AOAP), admitted there was a risk that industrial action would divide public and private sector workers further.
‘‘Nobody doubts the pinch that private sector workers feel. We feel it too, and see it in friends and family working for private business. But we’re damned if we do and damned if we don’t object to what the government has in store for us," he said.
Health services
The health sector will witness major upheaval. On average, the 50 acute hospitals in the Health Service Executive (HSE) system see more than 13,900 outpatients each day.
These hospitals also handle some 2,700 day-case discharges, treat some 3,200 patients in emergency departments, and see 1,600 inpatients discharged.
Just how much disruption is likely to be seen on Tuesday is unknown, but provision is being made for a curtailed service to the public.
An HSE source said that, on the cost front, it was difficult to quantify how much the cost of this action would be. A letter to all Irish Nursing Organisation (INO)members advised them that the day of action would begin at 8am and end at 8pm.
They will be joined in similar action by the Siptu-represented nurses.
At acute hospitals, members will withdraw their services from all elective and day services, including outpatient departments, day hospital wards and departments, and all administration and education duties.
In respect of other inpatient wards and departments at acute hospitals, the INO advises that local strike committees should ‘‘roster a minimum of two nurses to each inpatient ward/unit/ A&E department, to ensure that essential care is available to patients’’.
In the case of theatre, normal on-call arrangements should be applied. Strike committees will advise regarding the restricted nature and form of duties to be performed in these areas.
Community nursing services will be provided as an ‘‘essential call service only’’.
The INO has specified the sectors that will be excluded from the strike.
These are care of the elderly services in hospitals, homes and day centres, services for persons with intellectual disability and palliative care services.
INO members who also work in delivery units in maternity hospitals and those working in intensive care units in acute/maternity hospitals are also advised to turn up for work as normal.
This notice comes with the caveat that lunchtime protests may be organised, for a two hour duration, for persons in charge of the elderly and intellectual disability workplaces to show members’ support for the day of action.
‘‘The range of intensive care facilities excluded, subject to them having patients on the day, will be finalised by the local strike committee," said the letter from INO general secretary Liam Doran.
That letter was preceded by a meeting between the INO and HSE management, which has since advised that it is to defer all non-emergency procedures and re-schedule outpatient appointments.
Prisons
Prison officers will conduct a full work stoppage on all noncontact services beginning on Tuesday. Officials from the Prison Officers Association (POA)- were in discussions late last week with Irish Prison Service management to agree the level of emergency cover required. Historically, the IPS and POA have never agreed on the specifics of emergency cover, disagreeing about the level of cover required.
The non-contact services which will shut down on Tuesday are the building services unit and the Prison Service Escort Corps (PSEC). In addition, prison staff will stop work at the IPS headquarters in Longford and Dublin, and at the training and development centre at Beladd House, Portlaoise, which is affiliated with the Sligo Institute of Technology.
In addition, prison officers at all prisons and places of detention will engage in two one hour stoppages during the day, in the morning and in the afternoon, with specific times to be agreed over this weekend, following a decision by the Pod’s national executive council.
POA deputy general secretary Eugene Dennehy said that the POA was willing to continue the fight against what it and other Frontline Services Alliance members saw as a disproportionate reduction in their take-home pay, which will arise from pay cuts that include a shearing of allowances and unsocial-hour payments.
‘‘Prison officers will have to take whatever action is necessary to deliver the message that the government’s plans for us are not acceptable. We are determined to play our part, and we will be upping our individual action after Tuesday, which we see as a beginning and not the end of a campaign of opposition," Dennehy told The Sunday Business Post.
A decision to shut down non-contact services on sporadic days, particularly the PSEC’s operation, would have the effect of halting all criminal trials in which a prison officer transit service was required to bring the prisoner to court from jail.
A similar strike last March was postponed after the government entered talks with the unions but at the 11th hour, union leaders have warned that this strike will go ahead unless there is a government guarantee of no compulsory redundancies, no further cuts in public service pay and no loss of pension benefits.
In the current environment, this seems unlikely, but unions believe that a reduction in the public pay bill - which the government needs to cut by €1.3 billion - can be achieved over the next three to five years through a range of measures, such as a hiring embargo in certain areas, and national pay deal deferrals in the future.
Civil and public services
The Civil and Public Services Union (CPSU)h as around 13,000members in the civil service.
They are all expected to participate in pickets across the country, according to its general secretary Blair Horan. As a result of decentralisation, these members are employed in offices nationwide.
‘‘We expect 99.9 per cent participation. Only three people passed the picket - and were expelled from the union - during the strike on February 26 last," Horan said.
‘‘This strike will be very obvious across the country, with pickets outside garda stations, hospitals, local authority depots and, basically, on every street corner. The last time we held a strike we operated a ‘life and limb’ policy to services, and the social welfare computer centre was staffed for possible emergency requirements. That will not happen now.
There will be no signing on for welfare payments on Tuesday, and some payments will be delayed as they won’t be processed." Only the coastguard and the meteorological service will be staffed, as they are considered vital ‘life and limb’ services.
Impact has 55,000 public service members across various sectors, ranging from engineers and architects in local authorities to social workers and health service clerical administrators.
Bernard Harbor, union spokesman , said local branches nationwide were organising pickets, and all members would be rostered on these for a time.
‘‘Employees in a small or rural workplace may be rostered in a bigger picket nearby. For obvious reasons, a fire service will be maintained, along with acute and emergency healthcare. The effects of this will be huge - 12 unions are involved, and schools and colleges around the country will also close. Streets won’t be cleaned or rubbish collected - the public will see, for one day, the work the public sector do," he said.
Schools
The Irish National Teachers’ Organisation has directed all members to go on strike, but arrangements need to be made by boards of management about the work of school secretaries, caretakers and bus escorts who are not public sector employees. If these people turn up for work, but cannot complete it because schools are closed, their wages are not likely to be docked, unlike public sector employees.
INTO spokesman Peter Mullen said he expected around 1,000 people - on a rota system - to partake in a picket outside the Department of Education & Science in Dublin city centre. ‘‘It has been almost 25 years since national teachers last went on strike," he said.
The Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland has requested its 18,000 members to partake in a picket from 8.30am to 10am, and make their own local arrangements after that.
ASTI spokeswoman Gemma Tuffy said teachers had ‘‘already taken a 10 per cent pay cut this year with the pension, health and income levies’’.
‘‘Teachers feel they are being singled out as a soft touch, and are not willing to take another pay cut this year," she said.