Caredoc workers are continuing their strike on Thursday evening in a row over pay.
Members of SIPTU and the INMO have said they are waiting for an eight per cent pay increase agreed more than two years ago.
The workers, who are striking in Carlow, Waterford, Wexford, Kilkenny, and Tipperary, started their 24-hour strike at 8am on Thursday morning.
Around 270 workers, represented by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation and SIPTU, confirmed the strike action on Wednesday, after no “meaningful engagement” had taken place with Caredoc to avoid the dispute.
The strike action is taking St Dympna’s Hospital in Carlow, HSE Community Care in Waterford, Primary Care Centre in Wexford, Ayrfield Medical Centre in Kilkenny, and The County Clinic in Clonmel.
The unions are seeking the implementation of the 2023 WRC pay agreement for Section 39 organisations, specifically the 8 per cent increase due to members working in Caredoc.
SIPTU health division industrial organiser, Ger McNally, said some of his members involved in the Caredoc dispute are “barely on minimum wage”.
Mr McNally told RTÉ radio’s Today with David McCullagh show that his members were providing 24-7 access to care, working unsociable hours and some were “barely on the minimum wage”.
SIPTU represents call takers, drivers, receptionists, and admin staff at Caredoc, which provides GP out-of-hours services in the southeast region.
McMcNally outlined how an eight percent increase agreed at the WRC in 2023 , but that it has not been applied to SIPTU’s members at Caredoc.
SIPTU had been trying to engage with Caredoc to resolve the issue, but Caredoc had not meaningfully engaged, he said.
According to a statement from Caredoc it was an issue with the HSE which had not paid Caredoc enough to honour the eight percent increase. Caredoc claimed it received €647,000 from the HSE but this was not enough to pay the eight percent increase SIPTU is seeking.
Caredoc returned the €647,000 to the HSE, claiming it was a partial payment that would not have covered the pay increase across the organisation.
Mr McNally pointed out that Caredoc was the employer therefore the onus was on them to meet the agreed increase. Caredoc had returned the €647,000 received from the HSE.
“They sent it back five or six months later. I understand as part of the agreement as well, and the HSE had forward that figure that they had offered Caredoc to come and sit down for discussion. I understand Caredoc never did because they took their own legal case.
“We asked at the start, why not pay that out as an interim? If it wasn’t enough, pay it out as an interim. But that wasn’t the case. Caredoc have never provided a mechanism of how they’re going to pay this. They’ve never given anything to us, as in a plan going forward or whatever.”
