Paramedics strike and union recognition
Deputy Calleary raised the paramedics and emergency medical technicians strike over union recognition and pressed the Government to ask the WRC to engage. The Minister said the dispute was regrettable but argued that adding another union would create fragmentation and operational difficulty for the HSE.
Next Wednesday will see the sixth day of striking by paramedics and emergency medical technicians on the issue of union recognition. The Government's strategy seems to be to hope that they will go away. After six days on strike, they are proving they will not.
The Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, is an important part of our industrial relations machinery. The Government and the HSE as a Government agency cannot continue to ignore it. What kind of message does that send to other companies in respect of which the WRC is intervening? Will the Government take its head out of the sand and ask the HSE to engage with the WRC? These are exceptional professionals who give extraordinary service to the country. They are not doing this lightly. The Government cannot allow them to go on strike for a sixth day.
Comment on this
As the Deputy knows, we do not want to see the strike either and have no desire to see the dispute continue. The issue has been outlined in the House several times. Paramedics are represented by three different unions. If we included a fourth, there would be an issue of fragmentation in the representative role. We must try to work around that challenge. We take on board-----
Comment on this
What is the position on asking the WRC to engage?
Comment on this
There would still be an issue of fragmentation. How many unions would represent one group of people? Would it be five or six? At an operational level, it would be difficult for the HSE to deal with four, five or potentially even six different unions that were trying to negotiate for one group of people.