Patients face more delays as lab scientists go on strike
‘DEMEANING’ pay inequality has forced medical scientists to strike, claims an employee who is asking the Government to resolve the issue before more patients are affected.
Routine laboratory services are being withdrawn from 8am-8pm today, affecting hospital and GP services.
Julianne Flynn, a medical scientist at St James’ Hospital in Dublin, told the Irish Daily Mail that striking is the last thing workers want, but that retention and recruitment issues in the profession have reached ‘crisis’ levels.
Members of the Medical Laboratory Scientists Association (MLSA) will today carry out industrial action due to ‘frustration over long-standing pay and career development issues that are affecting recruitment and retention in the medical laboratory sector’.
Today’s strike involves around 1,800 medical scientists who carry out diagnostic testing in HSE hospitals, public voluntary hospitals, private hospitals and the Irish Blood Transfusion Service.
Ms Flynn explained that one of the most pressing demands by staff is for medical scientists to receive equal pay to biochemists, as they claim to do similar work.
‘We’ve had to deal with unprecedented times during Covid and the cyberattack,’ she said. ‘We have carried out four million Covid tests and there’s very little recognition because nobody knows we exist. We’re the invisible people of the healthcare system and we have such an integral role in how the hospital operates.
‘We are not asking for a pay rise – we are asking to be paid equal to biochemists, who we work side-by-side with. We are doing identical work, yet we are paid 8% less. Can you imagine how much tension that drives in a lab?’
The action follows unsuccessful talks between the MLSA and the HSE, Department of Health, Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Public Service Agreement Group
If no progress is made in the dispute, a further five days of industrial action are planned for May 24, 25 and 31, as well as June 1 and 2.
Ms Flynn continued: ‘This is not something we want. I cannot believe the Government allowed it to get this far. From the outset, medical scientists are taught to be patientfocused. We’re asking for equal pay for equal work. We’re asking for career progression.’
The Irish Association of Emergency Medicine (IAEM) warned over the weekend that emergency department services are to face ‘severe disruption’ as a result of the strike.
Green Party TD Neasa Hourigan has written to Health Minister Stephen Donnelly, asking him to instruct the HSE to meaningfully engage with the MLSA on the dispute.
She wrote: ‘The dispute, as I’m sure you are aware, dates back to 2001. In spite of the initial Expert Group Report and the more recent involvement of the Workplace Relations Commission, we now seem to be at the point where the Medical Laboratory Scientists Association has not received any proposals from the HSE on how this dispute should be resolved.’
The MLSA say 98% of members voted for industrial action as a result of ‘huge burnout’ amongst the workforce.
It says members are protesting that up to 20% of approved medical scientist posts are unfilled in public hospitals and that medical scientists carry out identical work to other scientific colleagues who work in hospital laboratories yet earn on average 8% less.
The union claims medical scientists have fewer career development opportunities and less support for training and education than comparable colleagues, and that the role of laboratory diagnostics within healthcare is expanding significantly, leading to an increase in workload.
In a statement, the HSE said: ‘The HSE is working with the MLSA to ensure arrangements are in place tomorrow for the provision of a limited range of services safely.’
‘We are the invisible people’ ‘Dispute dates back to 2001’