NURSES AND MIDWIVES will hold lunchtime protests at hospitals across the country today, as their union criticised Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin\u2019s comments about public sector strike action as \u201ca little bit glib\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) said members will demonstrate over cost-of-living pressures and their impact on staffing levels, ahead of planned work stoppages next Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Speaking on RT\u00c9\u2019s Morning Ireland today, Inmo General Secretary Phil N\u00ed Sheaghdha rejected Martin\u2019s suggestion that some public servants wanted industrial action regardless of what the government offered.<\/p>\n
The Taoiseach told Newstalk on Wednesday that he got the sense people wanted industrial action \u201cirrespective of what happens\u201d, adding: \u201cI think that\u2019s wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n
Responding to the remarks, N\u00ed Sheaghdha said industrial action could still be avoided, but argued that workers had a right to express their dissatisfaction.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo say that public servants are just taking strike action for the fun of it, I think, is a little bit glib,\u201d N\u00ed Sheaghdha said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we\u2019re serious about trying to find a resolution, I would avoid that type of commentary because it\u2019s absolutely inflammatory.\u201d<\/p>\n
Protests are planned at Cork University Hospital, University Hospital Limerick, St Vincent\u2019s University Hospital and the Mater Hospital in Dublin, Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, Letterkenny University Hospital, Galway University Hospital, Naas General Hospital and Midlands Regional Hospital, Mullingar.<\/p>\n
Most demonstrations will take place between 12.30pm and 1.30pm.<\/p>\n
INMO members are already engaged in a work-to-rule, which N\u00ed Sheaghdha said had exposed staffing shortages across the health service.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are actually doing the job of two people most times when they go to work, and that has been really exposed by the work to rule,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
N\u00ed Sheaghdha warned that the action had already slowed or curtailed some services, with further disruption expected during next Wednesday\u2019s strike.<\/p>\n
\u201cServices have been slower, services have been curtailed, and next week, when we have a work stoppage, we understand that the health service will be announcing to the public today that services will be closing.\u201d<\/p>\n
N\u00ed Sheaghdha said outpatient and day services in particular could be affected, with some appointments postponed.<\/p>\n
She said the HSE was expected to inform patients and GPs of the disruption in advance.<\/p>\n
The protests come amid a wider public sector pay dispute, with work stoppages planned for 14 October and further strike action scheduled for 21 October.<\/p>\n
The previous public sector pay agreement expired at the end of June.<\/p>\n
In Tuesday\u2019s budget, Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers announced that \u20ac1.2 billion had been allocated towards a new public sector pay agreement.<\/p>\n
Chambers said the funding demonstrated the government\u2019s seriousness about reaching a deal and called on unions to re-engage in negotiations and stand down their industrial action.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would now call on ICTU and other associations to match this intent by re-engaging as a matter of urgency and standing down the ongoing industrial action,\u201d Chambers said.<\/p>\n
However, unions have said the funding is not enough to resolve the dispute.<\/p>\n
Asked whether the budget had changed members\u2019 minds, N\u00ed Sheaghdha said public servants did not believe enough had been done.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey don\u2019t believe it was a worker-facing budget, and that their mind hasn\u2019t changed and hasn\u2019t been shifted,\u201d N\u00ed Sheaghdha said.<\/p>\n
She added that the government needed to listen to workers\u2019 concerns over pay and the cost of living if it wanted to avoid further industrial action.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NURSES AND MIDWIVES will hold lunchtime protests at hospitals across the country today, as their union criticised Taoiseach…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":648421,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3175,61,48751,60,44789,275132,43,5728,142342,24168,1562],"class_list":["post-648420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-hospital","tag-ie","tag-inmo","tag-ireland","tag-irish-nurses-and-midwives-organisation","tag-lunchtime-protests","tag-news","tag-nurses","tag-phil-ni-sheaghdha","tag-protests","tag-strike"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648420","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=648420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648420\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/648421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=648420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=648420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=648420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}