Cancer screening jobs go to US

THE Health Service Executive has awarded the contract to analyse ongoing results from the national cervical screening programme to a US-based private laboratory, leading to 70 job losses in Ireland, according to the Medical Laboratory Scientists’ Association
The national screening programme is state funded and offers free tests to women between 25 and 60 in the 26 Counties whose tests will be then analysed in the US. It is thought that this latest move by the HSE will see industrial action from 2,000 staff in 46 laboratories across the state who generally carry out the routine testing.
John Kane of the MLSA said that as the lab workers are public servants they cannot be made redundant but that for 70 of them their careers would be “effectively over.”

Guinness breweries to shut

DIAGEO, owner of Guinness, announced plans this week to lay off over half its brewery workforce and move most of its beer productions to a new plant in the Dublin suburbs by 2013.
Two hundred and fifty workers will be laid off at Dundalk, Kilkenny and Waterford.
Sinn Féin Workers’ Rights spokesperson Arthur Morgan TD called on the company to show responsibility for its workers during its ‘rationalisation for profit’ venture.
The Louth TD also called on the Government to redouble its efforts to encourage indigenous enterprise:
“The news today is shocking but not surprising. When you enthral yourself to multinationals you have to accept that they have no loyalty to culture of tradition and certainly not to the workers who make them so profitable.”
The Guinness Staff Union, which represents the majority of Guinness employees, has pledged to fight the proposed closure of the plants and work with other trade unions to ensure that any redundancies are voluntary. The GSU is to ballot members on industrial action over redundancy terms this week after a recent vote saw members reject the company’s proposals by 98 per cent. 

Psychiatric nurses’ dispute continues

PSYCHIATRIC nurses involved in a dispute with the Health Service Executive over compensation for nurses injured at work have agreed not to escalate their industrial action this week after the PNA and SIPTU agreed a framework proposal with the HSE to conclude negotiations on a new compensation scheme.
The unions are maintaining an overtime ban while talks continue at the Labour Relations Commission this week. 

‘Appalling’ conditions on ship docked in Cork

A Liberian ship docked in Cork this week was found by an inspector from the International Transport Federation (ITF) to have 12 Filipino crew members living in appalling conditions.
Ken Fleming of the ITF said conditions aboard the Lady Chiara tanker were “appalling” and that basic food items such as milk, bread and cheese were not in stock for the crew members, some of whom “cried with relief” when the ITF came aboard. The food stock was at such a low level that local trade union members had to bring the crew to a restaurant to feed them.
Port workers had originally refused to unload the ship’s cargo due to the living conditions but have agreed to discharge their duties provided the ship is properly provisioned and that back wages are paid to the crew.
This is the second ship to have docked in an Irish port in a three-week period that has had union objections to crew living conditions.