Planned strike at Cavan hospital averted

A dispute by porters at Cavan Regional Hospital which began on June 5th has been resolved.

A planned strike by over 150 non-nursing SIPTU members at the hospital, who had voted in favour of industrial action in support of the hospital’s porters had today been deferred following talks at the Labour Relations Commission (LRC) yesterday.

Tonight a SIPTU spokesman said the dispute had been resolved and work at the hospital would resume as normal tomorrow.

Relations at the hospital were not good and we were hopeful that a proper job description would help to resolve the problems our members were experiencing SIPTU branch secretary Mr Jim Mullery

According to the union, the dispute had centred on the non-adherence to existing agreements by hospital management.

Earlier SIPTU Branch Secretary Mr Jim Mullery said: "Eighteen months ago the initiative to draw up job descriptions for our members was seen as a step in the right direction by both the porters and the front line hospital management.

"Relations at the hospital were not good and we were hopeful that a proper job description would help to resolve the problems our members were experiencing. Instead we saw the continuing non-adherence by management to these descriptions," he said.