{"id":632929,"date":"2026-09-22T23:44:43","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T23:44:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/632929\/"},"modified":"2026-09-22T23:44:43","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T23:44:43","slug":"more-than-10000-health-workers-set-to-strike-for-a-day-in-october","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/632929\/","title":{"rendered":"More than 10,000 health workers set to strike for a day in October"},"content":{"rendered":"

Union Siptu described the planned industrial action<\/a> that will impact 30 hospitals as a \u201csignificant intensification\u201d of its campaign for \u201cdignity, fairness, and financial certainty for workers\u201d.<\/p>\n

The escalation comes after what Siptu described as the Government\u2019s \u201ccontinuing failure\u201d to establish a forum for negotiations on a successor public service pay agreement following the expiry of the current agreement at the end of June.<\/p>\n

Siptu health divisional organiser Kevin Figgis said members have shown \u201cextraordinary patience\u201d since the current public service agreement expired.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have continued to provide essential health services while facing soaring costs for food, fuel, electricity, gas, rent, and mortgages,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYet the Government has failed to provide any meaningful forum where public service unions can engage on a new pay agreement which addresses the concerns of our members.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cIf the Government continues to ignore the legitimate concerns of public servants, our members will have no option but to proceed with a full day of strike action on October 14.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe responsibility for avoiding that outcome rests squarely with the Government.<\/p>\n

\u201cHealth workers cannot continue to absorb the impact of escalating living costs while their demand for a pay agreement which is suitable to meet the growing financial crisis on their families remains ignored.<\/p>\n

\u201cTime is running out. A different approach is urgently required.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Figgis further stated: \u201cThis dispute is not about taking action for the sake of it. It is about securing dignity, fairness, and financial certainty for workers who keep public services functioning through some of the most challenging periods in the history of the state.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur members voted overwhelmingly in favour of industrial and strike action because they know the status quo is no longer sustainable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trade union action on scale not seen since 2009, says Labour TD<\/p>\n

Speaking on Tuesday, ahead of a sitting of the D\u00e1il, Labour TD Ged Nash said Ireland will see trade union action on a scale not witnessed since 2009 if the Government does not address ongoing public sector pay disputes in the coming budget.<\/p>\n

He said the budget announcements of the last three years have been \u201cworks of fiction\u201d, and warned this year\u2019s might be no different.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis budget will be a work of fiction if it does not accommodate a sum of money to allow for a deal on public sector pay and reform to be negotiated\u201d, the Labour Party\u2019s spokesperson on finance said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this point in time, the minister for public expenditure (Jack Chambers) has ducked and dived, and has abrogated his responsibilities to those who work for the state, to try to sit down and discuss in a meaningful way, the successor agreement to the public sector pay deal that expired last June.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery month that passes by saves the minister for public expenditure \u20ac100m in terms of expenditure, and that happens to be about the cost of keeping the excise goods going for another period of time.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo that\u2019s a convenient position for the minister to be in politically.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201c(Mr Chambers) will have a real political problem come October 14, when the public sector unions en masse decide to withdraw their labour as they are entitled to do and go on a national strike.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd in my view, it is no coincidence that the last time we had this kind of militant and legitimate industrial action across the public service was the last time that Fianna F\u00e1il were in government when they destroyed the country.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Union Siptu described the planned industrial action that will impact 30 hospitals as a \u201csignificant intensification\u201d of its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":632930,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1111,103,397,396,61,60,43,1112],"class_list":["post-632929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-court-and-crime","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-politics-and-analysis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=632929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632929\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/632930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=632929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=632929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=632929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}