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Taoiseach Simon Harris during encounter with Charlotte Fallon in Kanturk, Co Cork, during the election campaign. RTÉ

SIPTU trade union to consult Section 39 workers on industrial action over pay claim

The pay of Section 39 workers came to the fore during the general election campaign, when Taoiseach Simon Harris had an encounter with a carer in Co Cork.

THE SIPTU TRADE union is to begin consulting members in Section 39 organisations about potential industrial action over a longstanding pay claim in the sector.

Section 39 organisations are charities and organisations contracted by the State to provide health services.

They work across a number of areas, including disability and primary care.

Historically, their pay was linked to HSE staff, but during the economic crash, these organisations were instructed to impose pay cuts in line with those made on HSE staff.

However, during the recovery, HSE staff pay was restored, but additional funding to restore the pay of Section 39 organisation staff was not provided.

The Irish Wheelchair Association (IWA) is a Service 39 organisation and last week called on the government to “take disability seriously and deliver on their commitment to resolve the pay issues”.

It noted that in October 2023, an interim agreement was reached at the Workplace Relations Commission with a view to returning pay parity with HSE grades for similar roles.

The IWA said it is “only fair and just that they get equal pay for equal work”.

Its CEO Ann Marie O’Grady added: “The Government made promises over a year ago to have meaningful engagement with the sector around pay parity and they need to deliver on their promises.  

“This issue can’t wait any longer to be resolved, people are suffering due to the inaction.”

The issue regarding the pay of Section 39 workers came to the fore during the general election campaign, when Taoiseach and Fine Gael leader Simon Harris had an encounter with a carer in Kanturk in Co Cork.

Charlotte Fallon is employed by St. Joseph’s Foundation, which is designated as a Section 39 organisation.

Fallon told Harris that she was a Section 39 worker and added: “We’ve fought for our money … but we are ignored.”

Harris responded: “No, no, not at all.”

When Fallon said that “our people are suffering” and that the carers were “ignored”, Harris said “that’s not true” and walked away.

He came back for a moment and Fallon said to him: “You’re not a good man.”

He responded: “Well, if you don’t think I’m a good man…”, before leaving again.

In a statement today, SIPTU Sector Organiser, Damian Ginley, said that despite “several soundbites from senior people in the Government claiming that they fully support our members’ pay claim, the same leaders refuse to give a mandate to the appropriate funding Department officials to address this long-standing issue”.

He added that the “complete inaction by the Government over the last 12 months to address this matter at the Workplace Relations Commission has led to our decision to consult with members on the next steps in their campaign for pay justice”.

Over the next few days, SIPTU will consult with its members to consider options available to them, including ballots for industrial action.

Ginley remarked that Section 39 workers are “acutely aware that during the last economic crisis, their pay was slashed because of a Government decision”.

“In contrast, the Government has now spent years refusing to address their claim for pay parity with those delivering similar services directly employed by the State,” said Ginley.

“The lack of respect shown to our members is obvious.”

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35 Comments
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    Mute Frank Mc Carthy
    Favourite Frank Mc Carthy
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    Dec 3rd 2024, 4:52 PM

    Just GET IT DONE. The IWA & others in the disability sector have been overlooked & fobbed off far too long.

    150
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    Mute Louis Jacob
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    Dec 3rd 2024, 4:55 PM

    @Frank Mc Carthy: … You are correct!!! Stopped clock… and all that.

    102
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    Mute Brendan O'Brien
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    Dec 3rd 2024, 5:01 PM

    @Louis Jacob: ‘Even a blind squirrel is right twice a day’ (Loudermilk).

    Frank/Kevvy etc. is the Journal’s very own blind squirrel.

    3
    See 25 more replies ▾
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    Mute Louis Jacob
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    Dec 3rd 2024, 5:07 PM

    @Brendan O’Brien: I don’t think Frank is one of them. He has a sense of humour. Don’t mind him atall in fairness. He’s a well-meaning little squirrel.

    77
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    Mute Frank Mc Carthy
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    Dec 3rd 2024, 5:09 PM

    @Brendan O’Brien: oh the resident know it all troll is on a rampage….. get your €€ elsewhere….I sure ain’t boosting your coffers

    8
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    Mute Frank Mc Carthy
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    Dec 3rd 2024, 5:11 PM

    @Louis Jacob: careful there Ted….next thing you’ll be called kevin kerrr or Essex Joe,lol

    6
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    Mute Brendan O'Brien
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    Dec 3rd 2024, 5:12 PM

    @Louis Jacob: I think you’re mistaken about that: the ‘Frank’ profile is carefully curated as the acceptable face of someone who makes appalling comments in other profiles. But enough about him for now.

    13
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    Mute Brendan O'Brien
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    Dec 3rd 2024, 5:14 PM

    @Frank Mc Carthy: Anything to say about the fact that this link (Gerry Kelly thread) proves that ‘Frank McCarthy’ and ‘Kevvy kerrr’ are the same person?

    https://www.thejournal.ie/world-reaches-300-bn-climate-finance-deal-at-cop29-6551764-Nov2024/

    7
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    Mute Frank Mc Carthy
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    Dec 3rd 2024, 5:15 PM

    @Brendan O’Brien: found your sick comments today about that little girl killed in New Ross despicable. R.I.P. Malikika

    6
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    Mute Brendan O'Brien
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    Dec 3rd 2024, 5:21 PM

    @Frank Mc Carthy: Well, that’s a blatant lie (give a link if you dispute this).

    Nothing to say about the proof of your multiple IDs?

    4
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    Mute Ross
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    Dec 3rd 2024, 5:22 PM

    @Brendan O’Brien: what a clown

    3
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    Mute Louis Jacob
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    Dec 3rd 2024, 5:27 PM

    @Brendan O’Brien: Haha. Correct. @Frank. Retired at 52? You should be writing plays.

    47
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    Mute Frank Mc Carthy
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    Dec 3rd 2024, 5:29 PM

    @Brendan O’Brien: there in black & white…an article about a new lord mayor in Dublin….. no doubt you’ll attribute that to one of your ‘many’ accounts, lol

    5
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    Mute Ger Whelan
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    Dec 3rd 2024, 5:31 PM

    @Brendan O’Brien: “proof” multi I’ds. You had the same proof that I was using a fake profile didn’t you?. Still waiting on my apology after proving you wrong.

    4
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    Mute Brendan O'Brien
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    Dec 3rd 2024, 5:35 PM

    @Ger Whelan: Give it a rest. You badgered me endlessly with the same nonsensical argument that someone else had used. It was a legitimate question.

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    Mute Brendan O'Brien
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    Dec 3rd 2024, 5:36 PM

    @Frank Mc Carthy: You should quote the ‘sick comments’.

    3
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    Mute Frank Mc Carthy
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    Dec 3rd 2024, 5:37 PM

    @Brendan O’Brien: NEVER go into the gutter, thanks

    4
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    Mute Ger Whelan
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    Dec 3rd 2024, 5:37 PM

    @Frank Mc Carthy: I read all Brendans comments on that article. Nothing he said was sick or despicable. So why lie?

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    Mute Brendan O'Brien
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    Dec 3rd 2024, 5:39 PM

    @Ger Whelan: Thank you, Ger.

    4
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    Mute Ger Whelan
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    Dec 3rd 2024, 5:39 PM

    @Brendan O’Brien: it wasn’t a legitimate question you used the name to refer to me several times. Posting multiple link’s to articles saying I must be him. Now you’re doing it same

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    Mute Brendan O'Brien
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    Dec 3rd 2024, 5:40 PM

    @Ger Whelan: And I do apologise for wrongly accusing you regarding having another profile.

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    Mute Brendan O'Brien
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    Dec 3rd 2024, 5:41 PM

    @Ger Whelan: But, as many others also know, ‘Frank’ is one profile of the site’s multi-ID troll. You should check out the link I give above.

    4
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    Mute Brendan O'Brien
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    Dec 3rd 2024, 5:42 PM

    @Ger Whelan: Incidentally, I get wrongly accused of having multiple IDs all the time here.

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    Mute Ger Whelan
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    Dec 3rd 2024, 5:43 PM

    @Brendan O’Brien: cheers. Consider it forgotten now

    4
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    Mute Frank Mc Carthy
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    Dec 3rd 2024, 5:43 PM

    @Brendan O’Brien: don’t crawl to me with mealy mouth apologies— you’re irrelevant & despicable to me

    5
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    Mute Frank Mc Carthy
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    Dec 3rd 2024, 5:44 PM

    @Brendan O’Brien: Cause you DO!!!!

    4
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    Mute Brendan O'Brien
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    Dec 3rd 2024, 5:48 PM

    @Frank Mc Carthy: Of course I’m not going to apologise to you. What were those sick and despicable comments?

    Sick and despicable comments on this site are generally made by you in a disposable profile that you reserve for that purpose (currently ‘Stephen’, previously ‘Vince Cable’ etc.). When they’re deleted you set up a new one.

    6
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    Mute Colette Byrne
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    Dec 3rd 2024, 5:53 PM

    @Frank Mc Carthy: while management of these sectors earn huge packages, and do very little regarding members and what is available to members. No need for charity if government paid people a living wage.

    3
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    Mute Sickof thisshit
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    Dec 3rd 2024, 5:44 PM

    They refused to do this for them for years..
    So many low paid retired with reduced pensions now..

    39
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    Mute carol mullen
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    Dec 3rd 2024, 7:38 PM

    Section 39 workers have been exploited by govt and the organisations they work for.Never a peep from the so called “social justice” gang like Mcverry,Depaul,Simon,Focus Ireland , Merchants Quay etc.. whose chief executives are on massive salaries while their fronline workers earn a pittance.They should hang their heads in shame.

    16
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    Mute Frank O'Hara
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    Dec 3rd 2024, 6:25 PM

    SIPTU is one of the biggest jokes in this country. Public sector unions are a cancer to the economy and they need to be banned. Unions are not for “the people”, unions are for unions just like politicians for politicians. SIPTU and the other legalised cartels serve no other purpose except to protect their union workers from competition. They are in bed with FG/FF and as a result, they get them to hike up the minimum wage in order to put low-skilled workers out of business and to stop young people from taking up entry-level jobs. The fact is that low-skilled workers simply aren’t worth the higher minimum wage for the labour they offer and as a result, they are simply priced out of the job market. This allows union workers to get all the jobs and to start demanding even higher wages.

    11
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    Mute Shaun Gallagher
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    Dec 3rd 2024, 6:36 PM

    @Frank O’Hara: As a public sector worker I agree totally. As far as I see with the unions they are there to protect the person who does Sweet FA

    14
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    Mute SV3tN8M4
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    Dec 3rd 2024, 11:02 PM

    Unions are finished in Ireland, just like Simon Harris in Kanturk, they don’t listen. Your subs are just funding the Political Careers of Stewards trying to make it in politics & funding certain Political parties. They have more interest in those arriving weekly than those workers paying their subs. Don’t waste your money on Union Subs. SIPTU even slower than Simon Harris in taking action, a joke.

    6
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    Mute P. V. Aglue
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    Dec 3rd 2024, 5:18 PM

    Only 2 more minutes of evening sunlight to lose but 20 more minutes of morning to lose

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    Mute Frank Mc Carthy
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    Dec 3rd 2024, 5:24 PM

    @P. V. Aglue: true….but look at the bright side ( no pun intended)….after 21st it’ll be going the opposite way

    9
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