Unions launch joint campaign over pay in community and health services

(March 2017) The IMPACT and SIPTU trade unions have organised a joint protest outside the parliament on 22 March calling for a restoration of pay and funding in community and voluntary services. The unions argue that workers in the sector have faced pay cuts, short-time working and unpaid overtime as they try to maintain services for vulnerable people. The unions want to ensure that the sector is not left behind as pay restoration gets underway in the rest of the public services.

The HSMSS-MT health workers’ union health is launching a series of protests in front of health institutions as part of its “We are health care!” campaign. The first action will be in Dubrovnik in 3 May and further action is planned in Zagreb, Split, Varaždin, Karlovac, Osijek and Vinkovci. The union is frustrated by unilateral decisions made by government and want measures to address issues around workers’ pay and particularly proper application of the collective agreement that should deliver appropriate pay levels for workers across healthcare. The HSMSS-MT is concerned that many of its

Fórsa, INMO and SIPTU – the three unions representing staff working in community and voluntary sector agencies funded by the Health Services Executive (HSE) have served fresh pay claims on a number of employers in the sector in the context of an ongoing dispute about pay. Workers in these agencies are on lesser terms and conditions than their counterparts working directly for the HSE. The government has recognised that it is the main and often sole funder of these organisations, and that its funding affects the ability of agencies to improve pay and conditions. Until 2008, workers in these