Strike action at St Aidan’s Services is suspended
STRIKE action which had been planned for this Wednesday at St Aidan’s Services, Gorey, was suspended for this week following a vote by workers.
However, not all of the unions voted in favour of proposals presented to them at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) last week, so the dispute remains unresolved, and further work stoppages have not yet been ruled out.
One 24-hour strike has already been carried out, forcing the closure of the day services at Millands and Camolin. However, residential services run by St Aidan’s were not affected by the strike.
Members of the largest union at St Aidan’s, SIPTU, voted by a slim majority to accept the WRC proposals which aim to resolve a dispute concerning the non-payment of increments. Members of IMPACT and the INMO, which have smaller numbers working at Aidan’s, also voted in favour.
However, the 18 members of the Psychiatric Nurses Association (PNA) decided against the proposals. Its members met on Monday to discuss the outcome of the vote. They decided to suspend this 24-hour work stoppage which was planned for this Wednesday, but no decision has yet been made on whether or not next week’s planned action will go ahead.
St Aidan’s receives funding from the HSE to provide day and residential services for people with intellectual disabilities.
There has been a long running dispute over the HSE’s refusal to provide pay increments to staff in organisations such as St Aidan’s in line with their HSE employed counterparts. After the deferral of last week’s planned strike action, and following two days of talks at the WRC, management and unions were both presented with proposals which were put to a vote on Friday.
Even though three of the four unions voted to accept the proposals, it worked out that in actual numbers, a majority of staff at St Aidan’s rejected the deal that was on the table.
St Aidan’s management were not available for comment yesterday afternoon, Monday, as the uncertainty continues.