UNION REPRESENTATIVES AND HSE officials are set for Labour Court crunch talks tomorrow morning, ahead of further ambulance worker strike action planned for next week. 

The talks, which are due to kick off at 10am, will be an attempt to bring about an end to the strikes, with all sides sitting down for mediation. 

It comes after a 48-hour work stoppage by ambulance personnel who are members of the Unite and trade union Siptu unions across the country that ended this morning, that was part of an ongoing dispute over pay, conditions, and how the service is being reformed. 

Strike action is set to continue next week if a resolution cannot be found, with a 48-hour stoppage planned for 19 May and a 72-hour stoppage scheduled for 26 May. 

Pickets were in place yesterday at major ambulance bases, but service members on strike emphasised that critical care calls were still being responded to. 

Last month, Unite and Siptu members voted in favour of industrial action due to what they refer to as management’s ongoing failure to implement the 2020 Roles and Responsibilities Review.

The unions say the qualifications, clinical responsibilities and operational duties of ambulance personnel have expanded significantly in recent years.

They also say a 5% increase recommended under the benchmarking II process has not been delivered.

During Leaders’ Questions Taoiseach Micheál Martin said that the State has invested “very significantly” in the National Ambulance Service, stating that negotiations had arrived at an agreed outcome that was recommended to the membership by unions. Martin said he accepted that members had been entitled to vote against it.

The Taoiseach said the only way to resolve the dispute was through dialogue and “exhausting the well-established industrial relations machinery of the State”, namely the Workplace Relations Commission or the Labour Court.

Speaking to The Journal yesterday evening, John McCamley, the Siptu organiser for the sector said that union reps were of the view that the HSE and the Department were taking a “wait and see” approach to responding to industrial action, but that the public support for those on the picket line yesterday was “clear to see”. 

“We’re hoping that the public support – which is all over social media – has indicated that picking a fight with members working in the ambulance service who provide such vital care is probably not the cleverest thing to do,” he said.