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2009

SIPTU household hospital staff organise protest outside Government Buildings as national talks resume

Date Released: 03 Nov 2009

SIPTU hospital support staff held a protest outside Government Buildings as talks on a national agreement resumed this afternoon. They believe they are one of the groups most at risk of losing their jobs if HSE management succeeds with its new plans to outsource their work to subcontractors.

“The HSE is already preparing to put documentation and procedures to put these jobs out for e-tenders”, SIPTU Health Sector Organiser Paul Bell said.

“Our members are not going to collaborate in the sale of their jobs and a race to the bottom. “They provide essential services as cleaners, nurses’ aides, porters, security in A&E departments and in the performance of other duties without which our hospitals could not function.

“The savings that can be made by outsourcing this work are relatively small but the impact on members and their families would be devastating if they were to lose their jobs. It is unfair and immoral to target these jobs simply because the workers concerned are considered an easy target.

“HSE management is already trying to demean and minimise the role of my members by referring to their work as ‘hotel style jobs’. There are up to 8,000 people carrying out this ‘hotel style’ work and experience in the UK shows that when you bring in contractors who extract the maximum workload from workers paid the minimum wage, the long term result is deteriorating standards and ward closures.”





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