Fórsa members in Ability West (Galway), Western Care (Mayo), St. Joseph’s Foundation (Cork) and Enable Ireland (Cork and Kerry) took part in three days of strike action last week.

The strikes took place as unions sought to highlight a growing pay disparity between community and voluntary sector health staff and their counterparts in the HSE and Section 38 funded agencies, in addition to the growing list of unfilled job vacancies in Section 39 funded agencies, and their impact on services and waiting lists.

Addressing members on the picket line at Ability West’s premises in Salthill, Co.Galway last week, Fórsa general secretary Kevin Callinan said: “It makes absolutely no sense that workers in these agencies wouldn’t be treated and paid the same as public servants while providing a vital public service.

“The only reason that’s been allowed to continue for 14 years is that government really want to run down how care is valued across society. We see it not just in Ireland, but at European and global level, that there’s a battle on now that care is properly valued, and we intend to win that.

“This is the start. We intent to campaign, for as long as it takes, to win pay justice for you. Stay with us, we’re going to win this,” he said.

Vacancies

Speaking to media on the picket line at Castlebar, principal social worker David Tuohy said “Western Care cannot recruit staff because we can’t pay people the money they’d get in other agencies, or in the HSE itself.

“In the last year, we’ve had a staff turnover of 33%. We can’t get people into the homes of people who need our service because we can’t pay them, we can’t recruit, and we can’t pay people the national pay arrangement. Agencies like ours will be 13.5% behind on pay rates by the end of the year.

“I should be working with families today but I’m striking to try and improve services for the people we serve,” he said.

Administration officer Colette Crowe was on the picket line at the Enable Ireland’s Lavanagh Centre in Curraheen, Cork. She said service users and staff were suffering due to the widening pay gap between care and community workers with bodies like Enable Ireland on section 39 contracts, and HSE staff or those on more favourable section 38 contracts: “The government mandates us to provide services to children with complex disabilities.

“We perform these services on behalf of the government, yet we are paid much less than HSE staff or Section 38 organisations for the same work. The pay gaps are quite significant and are rising all the time.

“I work in recruitment. It is so hard to recruit and retain staff. We have a high volume of vacancies and are constantly recruiting. But when people can get paid more doing the same job for the HSE or Section 38 organisations, why would they come, or stay, here?," she said.

Fight

Fórsa national secretary Ashley Connolly said the fight for community and voluntary sector health staff will continue: “We’re determined that the Government, the Department of Health and the HSE are forced to recognise the deepening crisis into which current funding and pay policies are pushing these services.

“In each of these employments there are significant vacancies for jobs, and growing waiting lists. The stark reality is that nobody is applying for the jobs, and in instances where one post is filled, another person is leaving to take employment elsewhere.

“That can’t be allowed to continue. It’s failing the families who rely on these services. It’s an unjust and inequitable system and we must fight to reform it,” she said.