Six Counties Coastguard to strike

EMPLOYEES of the Coastguard in the Six Counties went on strike for two days at the end of last week in an effort to secure a better pay deal. The employees who began the industrial action are co-ordinators of the coastguard service. Peter Cardy, Chief Executive of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency said that lives would not be put at risk during the strike.

 

Restaurant owners object to Sunday pay rates

OWNERS of restaurants in the 26 Counties are objecting to a clampdown by the National Employment Rights Agency that will force them to give their staff double pay on Sundays which they are legally entitled to. They maintain that if they increase Sunday pay they will be forced to close on that day.

Inspection officers from the National Employment Rights Agency (NERA) have been visiting food outlets and restaurants to enforce the Labour Court ruling on catering staff which says that any outlet which serves hot food must pay staff double time on a Sunday.

HSE reach agreement on ambulances

THE Health Service Executive (HSE) in the 26 Counties has reached an agreement to terminate multi-million euro deals with private contractors who were to provide ambulance services after SIPTU served the HSE with strike notice.
In recent months the HSE has used private ambulance operators to transport patients even though they were not approved by requisite HSE criteria and it emerged this week that there had been a number of invoice discrepancies where firms were paid for work that had never been carried out.
The termination of the private services began at the beginning of July and one of these companies, Life Ambulance Services, has sought an injunction against the termination.

 

Tribunal awards €12,000 in compensation for bullying

A WOMAN was awarded €12,000 in compensation for bullying by her employer in an Employment Appeals Tribunal this week. Loretto Martin from Newtwonmount-kennedy, County Wicklow worked in the Grand Hotel and had enjoyed a good relationship with her employer Adrian Flynn, but stated that this had changed after she had a child. She said that when she returned from maternity leave her boss had turned “cruel and callous”, and described him as a “bully” and a “chauvinist”. The tribunal stated that a “series of unsavoury incidents” had occurred, including one incident when Flynn refused to allow Martin to leave the hotel when her child was brought to hospital.
Loretto Martin said that she hoped that the EAT ruling would show “other women and other people working in the hotel industry that there are certain boundaries that should not be crossed.”