Hospital staff face job losses

HOSPITALS in the midlands are facing the loss of 140 staff after news of more HSE cost-cutting exercises emerged.
Ninety jobs at the Midland Regional Hospital in Tullamore are to go, with 30 job losses at the hospital in Portlaiose and 15 losses in Mullingar.
The Irish Nurses’ Organisation said that patient safety could be threatened by the HSE if it carries out plans to shed 30 nurses at the hospital in Tullamore. Five of these nurses have already been told that their contracts will not be renewed.
The HSE has refused to comment on the plans but said recently that cost-cutting measures will be looked at in an effort to work more efficiently within its budget. This comes the same week as the Dáil Public Accounts Committee was told that the HSE paid more than €1 million in bonuses to some of its management staff, €7.96 million was paid out to consultancy services and €230,000 was paid out in consultation for a bed utilisation report in 2006.   

 99% air traffic controllers vote for action

AIR traffic controllers who are members of the IMPACT trade union based at Dublin, Cork and Shannon airports have voted almost unanimously (by 99 per cent) in favour of industrial action as a result of an ongoing dispute over short-staffing and overtime.
The action will likely be 24-hour work stoppages which the Irish Aviation Authority will be given two weeks’ notice of.
The effects of short-staffing were seen last Saturday night as Dublin Airport had to be shut for three hours, affecting 12 flights when there was no controller available to do overtime.
Talks on the dispute are scheduled for 19 February in the Labour Relations Commission.

Hotel workers’ pay order quashed

AN ORDER fixing the wages and working conditions of 25,000 low-paid hotel workers outside Dublin and Cork has been quashed by the Labour Court and will be reconsidered after a High Court case involving the Irish Hotels Federation (IHF) and a Clare hotel business.
The IHF had previously brought a case challenging the constitutionality of industrial relations law that had allowed the previous wage-fixing order to be made. The IHF claimed that the laws which allowed the Joint Labour Committee and the Labour Court to fix wage rates and conditions of employment were “coercive of employers”. The state, which was a participant in the case, claimed that the ability of the JLC and the Labour Court to fix rates is in the interests of social justice and the common good. SIPTU has said it will be returning to the JLC to secure better pay and conditions for the hotel workers.

Aer Lingus talks break down

TALKS between the Aer Lingus Craft Group of Trade Unions and airline bosses on the issue of cost-cutting have broken down.
The National Implementation Body had recommended that the talks take place after Aer Lingus continued to withhold a pay settlement due since October that had been agreed as part of the ‘National Wage Agreement’.
Brian Gormley of Unite the Union and chair of the Craft Workers’ Group said:
“The airline has been engaged in stunts and mythical deadlines to delay paying what is due.  We are tired of listening to their whistling in the wind as our members’ pay decreases in real terms.  We will now refer the matter to the Labour Court.”

€116k awarded to restaurant worker

THE Labour Relations Commission has awarded €116,000 in compensation to a Pakistani man who was forced by his employer to work 60 hours a week for €50 for the past five years.
An LRC rights commissioner has said that the employer who committed the “gross breaches in employment law” cannot be named for legal reasons.
The Migrant Rights Centre supported the worker throughout his case and said that his employer had paid him €150 in total for this 60-hour week but deducted €100 of this for accommodation. As well as this, the employer retained the man’s passport and said that he would be deported if he spoke out.
The employer will pay the €116,000 in compensation.