Civil Servants And Health Workers Strike For Better Pay And Conditions
Around 170,000 public sector and health workers today began a strike today that is probably the biggest seen in Northern Ireland since the 70s.
And 15 unions voted to withdraw their labour from the workplace showing their absolute discontent with the state of affairs around key issues associated with their work contracts… inadequate wages, poor conditions of work, and patient safety.
Today and for the next five days the DfI indicates that roads in Northern Ireland will not be gritted.
And a joint statement form Hospital Trust CEOs has talked of widespread pressures on the NHS but acknowledges the workers rights to a fair wage and fair treatment.
FE colleges, schools, and other sectors supported by civil servants such as MOT centres are also affected.
Is this a warm-up for a general strike ?
So where is this all heading ?
The DUP and the Secretary of State for NI are still locked in sorting out the details of a ‘deal’. In the meantime, the people of Northern Ireland, shiver, skid, crash, and with increasing probability in these freezing conditions, take ill or are injured and/or even die.
This brings to mind the classic tale, a satire, of ‘Gulliver’s Travels’ (1726) written by Jonathan Swift when the warring parties are oblivious to the pains and problems of the vast majority of the powerless population affected who in the story die in their thousands while the two king’s argue over which end of the egg should be opened – the round end or the pointy end. Interestingly Lemuel Gulliver was a doctor, a member of the medical profession.
This appears to be what is happening today where reason has gone astray and a lack of humanity and empathy has been watered down to the point where our political masters expect us to sup up this ridiculous conflation from a broth of antiquated political behaviors.
The solution is simple! Just pay the workers what they are owed. No ifs or buts! No excuses or prevarications!
But I expect (cynically) this will not happen because of the wider dynamics going on within the Tory Party and they might be still trying to keep the DUP aboard in case they need their votes in a hung parliament after the next general election. But that’s another story!
Translink Workers Put The Brakes On As They Strike
Protesting outside the Translink bus station in Downpatrick, Colin Watson, a UNITE representative at Downpatrick Translink said: “We have had no choice but to withdraw our labour today once again. This is the fifth day of action in recent months.
“Our wages have slid below an acceptable level and the government needs simply to pull its socks up and address this issue. The funds are sitting there to be disbursed to the various sectors in the civil service etc yet we are looking at a situation where there is simply no movement on part of the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.
“He is repeating the same mantra, that the Assembly needs to be back up and running. While the politicians argue over the small print, our workers and their families, and the public, are suffering. This is not acceptable.
“All we are asking for is pay parity with other areas of the country. The funds are there to make this adjustment. They just have to be released”.
GMB representative Richard Donnelly said: “Workers need to be paid what they are owed. That is the bottom line.
“Payment of our retrospective wages would be a good start in improving industrial relations. We are being held to account for something that is outwith our power and jurisdiction. We can’t force political parties to go back to the Assembly. That is outwith our role.
“”We have the wide support of the public. They understand where we are coming from. Our wages have depreciated for years and now this financial adjustment is being blocked again. It’s just not acceptable. We just want pay parity.
“If this is not cleared up there will be more industrial action going forward.
‘We have not heard one complaint from the public about the strike. They are in support of what we are setting out to achieve.
“Our drivers, maintenance staff and cleaners are all out on strike. Our message to the powers that be is to ‘get this sorted out now’! The alternative is more strikes leading to a general strike which is always a possibility.”
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Nurses Strike for Better Pay And Conditions And Patient Safety
And outside the Downshire Estate, striking workers made their case clear. Royal College of Nursing (RCN) representative Laura Morgan said: “We are campaigning for safer staffing, and fair pay.
“These issues has lingered on and to date there is no resolution. We therefore had no choice but to strike.
“All we are asking for is parity of esteem with other parts of the UK. It is now all coming to a head and we are fighting back.
“Our wages are well below those of our colleagues in England and we do the same job. We are just looking for fair pay and fair play.
“”But this is not just about us anymore, the whole of the NHS is under pressure and workers are increasing calling on fair treatment.
“We are all members of the public as well as health workers. We all experience the same issues as the wider public.
“There is also a huge issue surrounding the employment of private sector nurses into the NHS.
“They get paid much more and often assume less responsibilities. This is just not right. We are striking and hope that the Secretary of State for NI takes notice. Out wages need to be brought up to the correct level now.”
Physiotherapists Out On Strike
And services within the NHS too were affected by the strike. Members of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapists spoke to Down News and said: “Like other sectors, our pay has fallen behind progressively.
“Also, as people leave the profession to go to the private sector, and the posts are not being re-filled, the existing physiotherapists in the NHS are very hard worked. This eventually impacts of the quality and safety of the service we provide.
“So we are fighting to address these key issues and want an NHS that is fit for purpose. We are trying to provide a first class service with limited resources. It just won’t work out in the end. It must be addressed now.”
Health Visitors Express Their Concerns
Health visitors play a key role in the health service and they too were on the picket line at the Downshire Estate in Downpatrick. A spokesperson said: “Early intervention is often crucial in protecting health and we do what we can to ensure our patients are well looked after.
“However, like as in other sectors, we need to be recognised through parity of esteem in our salaries, and the conditions too we work under need to be safe and secure for our staff and as well as our patients.
‘I have worked over 40 years in the NHS and I’m sad to say that I’m witnessing my colleagues having to take second jobs to make ends meet. This is just not acceptable by any standard.
“My children who are in their twenties are in fact getting almost four times my salary. We just do not feel valued anymore.
“We see nurses in the lower Band 5 working hard and working with nurses imported from agencies in the private sector who are getting paid more than them and these nurses having less responsibilities for the patients. Again this is not acceptable and we are here also supporting our workers and the patients in their hour of need.
“The bottom line that we want to preserve our NHS before it collapses and that is the reason why so many of us feel so strongly about this strike.”
Paramedics Striking In Support of Key Issues facing Health Workers and Civil Servants
Paramedics and Ambulance Care Attendees are often the first to reach a person seriously ill or injured and they too are singing from the same hymn sheet as other parts of the health service. The discontent is wide and deep in the NHS.
One paramedic said:”We need our wages issues addressed asap. This is a disgrace. We believe the NIAS needs to be better resourced, and importantly local hospitals need s to have more beds available so that the big hospitals are not bottlenecked.
“There is virtually no proper cover for the Downpatrick area in terms of ambulance cover. We could be tasked to go anywhere.
‘Often we have to wait with our patients in our ambulances at A&Es until the hospitals treat and find beds for other patients admitted earlier. Invariably there is a bottleneck in the system and a lot of our time is wasted because of this. It is inefficient.
“And often a person may have a care package set up and has to go back into hospital and it takes ages to get another care package set up again causing delays in the system.”
Another paramedic said: “We work very long hours and our pay needs to reflect this. We get paid to working until 8pm but often don’t get cleared up untill 11pm by the time we discharge our patients into the A&Es.
“There are just too many log-jams in the system and opening the likes of the Downe A&E could help to ease this problem. But again beds have to be available to absorb patients. It’s just a matter on improving resources all round is a sensible way.
‘But there is one core issue which many of us are not happy with. The NIAS is paying up to £800,000 a month to agencies in the private sector to provide ambulances and paramedics. This seems a serious waste of resource when we could be training more paramedics at Magee College and increasing the ambulance fleet size.
“We don’t believe these paramedics are trained to the same standards as the NIAS ones and this represents a safety standard issue.”
NIPSA Member Says Workers Have Been Treated Shabbily
NIPSA members too were out in force at the picket line in Downpatrick and one representative said: “We have been treated shabbily.
“Our health workers are just seeking parity of esteem in pay and conditions with other parts of the UK but the Secretary of State seems to be blocking the payments making a return to the Assembly by the political parties a condition.
“We really want to see safe staffing across all sectors in the NHS. Paying out workers their deserved wages would be a good start to addressing the core issues. It would show good faith on part of the civil servants and the Secretary of State for NI.
“We want to restore the NHS which has been under sustained pressure in recent years. It is so frustrating that while we show this collective commitment to the NHS, that staff are leaving and recruitment is faltering for this very reason of poor wages driving workers to the private sector.
“The health service is made up of a number of sectors and departments and it is heartening to see that they are jointly resisting the government imposition of not paying them their fair wages when the money is actually siting in a pot ready to give out to the workers.
“It is unbelievable that Chris-Heaton Harris can do this. He needs to act now before the health service collapses.
“The unions have wide public support. It is phenomenal. But I know that every one of those workers on the picket line today would rather be looking after their patients, or providing the essential services they do to keep our society ticking.”
Given the determination of the workers, it was apparent that if this matter is not resolved sensibly and quickly, they expressed further industrial action would happen, and that a general strike could even be a reality in the months ahead.
UNISON Call For Chris Heaton-Harris To Release The Funds Now
In a statement today on the current strike, A Unison representative said: “The government must release funding so health, education and other public sector workers in Northern Ireland can have their pay disputes resolved.
“The call comes as the Westminster government has failed to provide the funding needed to resolve pay disputes.
“The action, which is expected to be Northern Ireland’s biggest public sector strike in recent history, takes place in the continuing absence of a Northern Ireland executive at Stormont, and the failure of the Northern Ireland secretary to release funding that he says is available for public sector pay.
“The UK government says it has set aside £600m to settle public sector pay claims as part of a £3.3bn financial package to support the return of devolution in Northern Ireland. UNISON says the funding for pay should be released now.
UNISON general secretary Christina McAnea, who will be joining workers on picket lines across Northern Ireland, said: “Public sector workers in Northern Ireland are paying the price for political inaction.
“Health, care, school and other public service employees are hugely frustrated. Public sector workers never want to strike. But this intolerable situation has left them with no other option.
“NHS workers in the rest of the UK have had their wage rise for this year, but their colleagues in Northern Ireland have been left in limbo. Education support services workers have not had their long-overdue pay and grading review funded either.
“Chris Heaton-Harris has said there’s money available for pay. That money needs to be released. Everyone wants to see an Executive back up and running at Stormont, but public servants shouldn’t be caught in the middle.
“The Secretary of State needs to do the right thing and do it now. Workers across public services in Northern Ireland should not have to wait a moment longer.’’
Read UNISON’s Letter to The Secretary of State For NI
https://www.unison-ni.org.uk/sites/default/files/Secretary%20of%20State%20%281%29.pdf
