Tag Archives: industrial action

INMO members at University Hospital Limerick have commenced a ballot for industrial action this Wednesday over the refusal of hospital management to attend talks at the Workplace Relations Commission. The INMO represents over 1,000 nurses on site who are frustrated at the approach to date by management to resolving the persistent high nurse vacancy rates and other related issues. Among nurses’ concerns are the risks to patients, overcrowding in a Covid-19 environment and excessive workloads arising due to unfilled funded nursing posts in wards, emergency department and theatres. To date management have declined to provide the INMO with the vacancy rate. Mary Fogarty INMO Assistant Director of Industrial Relations said: “It is imperative that these vacancies are filled prior to the opening of 96 much needed additional beds on site. However many of the wards also have historical low staffing levels and need additional nurses to cope with the demands of the Covid-19 environment. “Nurses at UHL are exhausted after …

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) has condemned the gross overcrowding and the compromised ability of nurses to provide acceptable and safe care to all patients within University Hospital Limerick. “There is no doubt that the level of overcrowding today with 66 patients on trolleys and on extra beds on wards is unprecedented and is a serious crisis,” remarked INMO Industrial Relations Officer, Mary Fogarty . “INMO members do not accept that management at the hospital are robustly managing all of the available bed capacity to meet the demands of emergency patients who are deemed to need admission. It is incumbent on the management team as an employer and in governing the hospital to ensure that the hospital is safe for staff and patients and this is not the case. This is increasingly worrying for our members as clinical care of patients is compromised and there are high levels of stress being experienced by nurses daily. In recent weeks …

With industrial action by gardaí likely to go ahead on Friday and possibly on other dates in November, Shannon Airport will remain open and its security will not be compromised. Chief Superintendent John Kerin told The Clare Champion he expects that should the industrial action go ahead in its fullest form on Friday, Shannon Airport will still operate. “We have provisional plans made in the event that it does go ahead. We are confident that no flights will be impacted upon in Shannon,” he stressed. The Garda Representative Association (GRA) and the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) are set to withdraw their labour on this Friday and again on November 11, 18 and 25.  The GRA said it will ballot its members on any non-binding recommendations of the Labour Court in relation to the pay dispute while the AGSI is set to attend a Labour Court hearing today. Gardaí have a role in immigration control at Shannon, while …

INDUSTRIAL action due to take place at Element Six this week, having been earlier adjourned, has now been postponed for a second time. SIPTU members have been at loggerheads with management for some time over a variety of issues, most particularly a failure by the company to implement a Labour Court recommendation. Representatives of the union told The Clare Champio that their members were under very high levels of stress, with many of them having to take medication to cope with the prevailing situation. A meeting between management and SIPTU took place last Friday, which was chaired by Brian McGinn of the Labour Relations Commission. It is understood that some progress was made at this meeting, which led to the decision to postpone the strike action again. A document is set to be put to the union shortly, with members due to ballot on it thereafter. However, it is understood that there are some concerns already emerging that attempts may …

Members of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) in St Camillus Hospital, Limerick commenced a work to rule this morning. The industrial action comes some seven months on from notification by nurses to senior HSE managers that the clinical care of patients at the hospital is compromised due to ongoing unfilled nursing positions. Currently there are approximately 15 vacant nursing posts. The INMO, at the request of its members, has engaged with the HSE since last November in efforts to fast-track recruitment of nurses. So far this has not yielded sufficient numbers of qualified nurses and leaves the residents at ongoing risk. Calls by members for the HSE to curtail admissions to the 100 bed facility until such time as the nursing levels improve have also been rejected. Therefore, it is with regret that INMO members are left with no other option but to commence industrial action. The action will not harm any patient but will assist the available …

IMPACT members working at the Limerick group of hospitals have balloted in favour of industrial action following the concerns expressed by the union about corporate governance and senior staff salaries in the hospital group. Ninety per cent of the staff balloted voted in favour of taking the industrial action. The action will involve a refusal to report to the manager of the hospital group. IMPACT assistant general secretary Andy Pike explained, “This industrial action is designed to highlight the opposition of hospital staff to the excessive and unwarranted salary payments to a senior manager through a management consultancy. It is not envisaged that the action would affect the delivery of services in any way. “The HSE director general has said the mid-west hospital group needs additional administration staff to provide vital services to patients. The money spent employing just one management consultant would cover the costs of at least five clerical staff to help the hospitals cope with increasing demands. …

By Owen Ryan INDUSTRIAL action by Clare’s firemen is likely if the adoption of a new protocol for the service in Clare isn’t reversed, SIPTU is warning. It claims fighters’ lives will be put at risk by the adoption of Keeping Communities Safe, also claiming it jeopardises public safety. Clare County Council adopted Keeping Communities Safe at a meeting on Monday of last week, a move SIPTU condemned. “This decision means that elected members have, without any discussion of information, placed the lives of fire fighters at great risk and endangered the public. All Fire Stations in the county, along with families, are expressing extreme anger at how public representatives could have taken such a vote and indeed why.” The SIPTU statement outlined the fire fighters’ objections with what they say the plan will mean. “The extreme safety risk arises from the proposition to now send only four crews on a fire appliance where the national and international best practice …

Owen Ryan WHILE Minister Leo Varadkar was in Shannon last week to laud the airport’s recovery, there were some dark clouds gathering as its workers, along with their colleagues in Dublin and Cork airports, have all voted for industrial action. It’s because of a €780 million hole in the Irish Aviation SuperAnnuation Scheme, and Aer Lingus employees, also affected by it, have voted for industrial action too. Commenting on the situation, the Minister said; “It’s really for them (the pension scheme Trustees) to come up with revised proposals and I really think its incumbent on the unions to see and study those proposals before going out on strike.” He said he expects more twists and turns before any solution is found. “I think it’s fair to say there’s probably a few more chapters yet in this dispute and I’d very much call on the unions to wait for the proposals from the trustees and to study them before inconveniencing passengers …