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Porters in Mid-West Regional reject unfair allegations

Date Released: 11 Mar 2010

Porters working at the Mid-West Regional Hospital in Limerick have rejected allegations made by the hospital management about them last weekend. They were responding to claims by a spokesman for management, reported in local and national media on Friday, 5th March, over levels of sick pay and alleged “issues of misconduct” among the 54 porters at the hospital. The SIPTU members also said they would resist any attempt to privatise the portering service, as threatened by management.

SIPTU said that the remarks were “irresponsible and uncalled for” and ignored established industrial procedures for dealing with complaints. The Union said that that the allegations only arose because porters had highlighted the “filthy and dilapidated state” of their rest room at the hospital.

Sectoral Organiser, Karan O’ Loughlin, said that the remarks were symptomatic of wider underlying problems at the hospital.

“The Regional Hospital has been beset with industrial relations problems for a number of years now and slagging workers off in the media is certainly not going to help matters. The intransigent attitude of management has created a pressure cooker environment in this hospital where the lid could blow at any time. The media comments attributed to management are irresponsible and uncalled for,” she said.

“Our members are working under extreme pressure. Their numbers are reduced, the hospital will not provide cover and their conditions of employment have been diminished. The hospital management prefers to ignore the porters rather than engage with them through established procedures to resolve issues and create a better public service for patients using the hospital,” she said.

Karan O’ Loughlin said the porters had been campaigning for years to improve the condition of their rest area.

“A hygienic area to eat and rest in a hospital is surely not too much to ask,” she said.She said that hospital management should temper its remarks in relation to privatising the portering duties.

“This is the national HSE agenda and has nothing to do with workers in any one hospital. It is about getting the cheapest possible service for portering duties, care assistant duties and attendants regardless of quality and standards. The workers here will not stand for this and the HSE will have one hell of a fight on its hands if it tries to privatise these services,” she said.





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