News

SIPTU members have overwhelmingly accepted the Lansdowne Road proposals with 78.5% of votes cast in favour and 21.5% against. The proposals include a pay restoration process which will begin to restore wages and conditions cut during the austerity regime improsed after the financial crisis.

SIPTU Vice-President, Gene Mealy, said: “The result is comprehensive and the clear feedback that was received from meetings to discuss the ballot across the country was that members see this agreement as progress. However, it is also clear that there is still a long way to go in terms of the restoration and improvement of pay and conditions in the public service.”

SIPTU Health Divisional Organiser Paul Bell said: “We are pleased SIPTU has delivered a positive result. We ran an active and visible campaign for the agreement. Our team of volunteers and activists spoke to thousands of members by phone and in workplaces encourage them to use their vote. We also organised hundreds of new members into the union.”

Bell said the final result meant SIPTU can now move forward with confidence to the bigger challenges facing the public health service with the support of the majority of trade union members and activists.

“Every SIPTU Health member started this journey together on our Better Health Care, Better Jobs campaign platform. We intend on finishing the journey together and regaining the ground we lost step by step. This agreement will protect our members working in decent jobs in our public health service and get our members back on the road to real pay recovery.

SIPTU member, health worker and phone bank volunteer Beth Cunningham said: “We were never going to take this vote for granted. Every vote counts and every members voice matters. We contacted members around the country especially home care workers that live and work in isolated areas and encouraged them to vote.

We are very happy to have so much support from all SIPTU members working in the health service and our public services.

An increase in our pay, a commitment on protecting workers from outsourcing and the regularisation of interns will make a real difference in the lives of health workers,” she said.

From: http://siptuhealth.ie/siptu-members-vote-favour-lansdowne-road-public-service-proposals/