ABOUT 800 staff in private hospitals in Dublin are to ballot on industrial action in a row over the payment of the first phase of the national pay agreement signed last autumn.
Siptu’s Dublin health sector organiser Paul Bell said yesterday that he was surprised to learn over the weekend that some profitable private hospitals had taken the position that they did not have to pay the 3.5 per cent increase, which falls due later this year.
He said one hospital had informed the union that the employers’ group Ibec had advised it not to pay the award, despite the fact that staff were currently negotiating on cost-saving measures which would generate major cuts in the overall wage bill.
Mr Bell said some hospitals had also been advised by insurance companies that they would not fund any pay rise.
He said Siptu had warned private hospitals and health insurers such as VHI and the Quinn group that they must honour the first phase of the national agreement.
Ibec has said the agreement should be deferred for at least a year. It has said the deal was now being met more in the breach than in the observance. “Most private hospital workers have a direct pay link with their colleagues in the public sector and their pay moves in line with the public sector. However, it remains to be seen if the trade union movement accepts the Government’s position on deferring payments due under the national programme, on top of the pension levy, which will start biting into the take-home pay of public healthcare employees in March.
“We cannot accept private hospitals profiteering from the situation by not paying their employees the 3.5 per cent and thereby making bigger profits to reward shareholders. If an individual hospital in the private sector cannot pay the award, it can argue its case in the Labour Court under the inability to pay clause in the national agreement,” Mr Bell said.
He said he had requested the Irish Congress of Trade Unions to clarify the situation, but that in the meantime Siptu would “be taking all steps necessary to ensure the national agreement is honoured”.
Support staff, such as porters, caterers and cleaners, will be balloted on industrial action.
Siptu said the main private hospitals in the region are St Vincent’s, the Bon Secours, the Mater and the Blackrock Clinic.
