13/12/2018

Ambulance Strike Postponed After HSE Threatens Injunction

A planned strike by some ambulance personnel has been deferred after the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) threatened to seek a court injunction to prevent it going ahead.

Staff in the National Ambulance Service who are represented by the Psychiatric Nurses Association (PNA) had planned one day of industrial action on Wednesday 19th December, over a dispute about union representation rights and the deduction of union subscriptions from pay.

PNA said on Thursday 13 December that the strike involving paramedics, advanced paramedics, and emergency medical technicians has been rescheduled for Tuesday 22 January.

The PNA is requesting that the Workplace Relations Commission get involved on both the substantive issues and on the refusal by the HSE to negotiate a contingency plan for the action.

Union sources revealed on Tuesday 11 December that the health authority was seeking a court injunction to stop the strike taking place next week and would not cooperate in the development of a plan to cope with demand while PNA members left their duties to picket.

It is believed that almost 500 members of the ambulance service subscribe to the PNA and will take action on 22 January.

The HSE has maintained that it does not recognise the PNA as a representative body for ambulance staff personnel.

The HSE said last month that recognising the union would undermine agreements in place with the Siptu union and would impair good industrial relations.



(JG)

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