SIPTU members are urging the HSE’s National Ambulance Service (NAS) to reverse its decision not to offer student paramedics full-time contracts following graduation, breaking with what had previously been common practice.
SIPTU Sector Organiser John McCamley said: “This decision comes only one week after SIPTU announced it was balloting its NAS members for industrial action, up to and including strike action. This is due to a litany of industrial relations disputes and the non-implementation of an independent report recommending enhanced pay scales for upskilling and additional training undertaken over the last 15 years.
“The latest decision by the HSE will see student paramedics offered limited fixed-term contracts with a view to their applying for permanent contracts at some point in the future.
“This is a total reversal of common practice, where graduate paramedics would be offered permanent contracts to take up employment working in the service. This new decision could see paramedics, who the NAS has trained in its own colleges, seek employment with another service or outside of Ireland.
“The decision by the HSE/National Ambulance Service’s management not to offer student paramedics permanent roles post-qualification for the first time has confirmed that management’s increasingly unilateral approach to industrial relations.”
He added: “The reaction to this decision has intensified the dispute to a point where industrial action looks inevitable. It is a self-inflicted wound, given the money and time the HSE spend training paramedics, only to let them go by treating them in this manner.
“We call on management of the HSE and the National Ambulance Service to reverse this decision and show respect to those who deliver this key public service.”