The union’s Health and Welfare and Civil Service divisions held their conferences last week at Treacy’s West County Hotel in Ennis, Co. Clare. Here’s a brief roundup of some of the news from conference.
IMPACT national secretary Louise O’Donnell told the Minister for Health, Leo Varadkar TD, that there is an inbuilt culture of dysfunction in Irish health services that is threatening its future. Louise said that results from a recent health service employee survey, Have Your Say, were damning. “It reflects very poorly on the HSE as an employer,” and Louise said the lack of a response from the HSE “betrays the dysfunction at the heart of the health system.”
The chair of IMPACT’s Health and Welfare division told delegates at the division’s conference last week that public service productivity must be recognised as unions and the Government prepare for talks on public sector pay restoration. Talks commence today (Tuesday 12th May).
The conference also endorsed the call for a forum to be created on pay and job security for the community sector. Michelle Grehen, of the union’s Boards and Voluntary agencies branch explained “I have been working in the domestic violence area in the community sector for twelve years, along with my colleagues in the homeless, drugs and youth services. In that time we’ve seen a major increase in the demand for our services. This has put pressure on staff who are striving to deliver a service and battling consistent cuts along with increment freezes."
Helen Cousins, of IMPACT’s Galway branch, brought a motion seeking the end of zero hours contracts, which she said is a growing feature in the social care sector, in addition to the hospitality and retail sectors. Conference backed the motion, and Helen said trade unions needed to “keep striking blows against zero hours contracts until the trend is wiped out”, while delegates also voted to support early childhood care workers who are low paid but expected to up-skill and re-train at their own expense.
At the Civil Service division’s conference, national secretary Eamonn Donnelly said the time has come for recruitment in the civil service as gaps emerge in some professional and technical grades. “There are now major gaps in the system which were created through retirement and the moratorium, there is a legitimate fear that services such as the archivists and archaeological heritage will become so depleted that they will never be replenished” he said.
IMPACT's Local Government and Services & Enterprises divisions will hold their conferences next week in Galway, from Wednesday 20th to Friday 22nd May.
