National Advocacy Service staff who are SIPTU members are set for a return to the picket lines today.
They’d taken to the streets last month to highlight issues with pay and working conditions but postponed their action for a fortnight pending talks.
Now it seems they’re out again from today with pickets being placed outside NAS offices in Kilkenny, Waterford, Wicklow as well as Dublin 7, Tallaght, Bray, Athlone, County Westmeath, Tullamore, County Offaly, Limerick City, County Roscommon, Cork City and County Louth.
Workers are also set to take their protest to Dáil tomorrow (Tuesday, 9th July).
SIPTU Deputy General Secretary, John King, said; “It is a failure by management, and its funding Government Department, to live up to a commitment that they would implement the Labour Court recommendation which has forced our members to resume this strike.
“The workers paused their industrial action on 12th June following a written commitment from management that the Labour Court recommendation would be honoured. After several days of talks between SIPTU representatives, National Advocacy Service management, the Citizens Information Board and Department of Social Protection officials, the funders of the organisation, it became clear that the commitment to implement fully the necessary changes in pay and conditions was being reneged on.”
He added: “This situation is unacceptable and undermines the proper conduct of industrial relations.”
SIPTU Sector Organiser, Brendan Carr, said: “We have had interventions by several members of the Government in the aircraft pilots’ dispute, with calls for both sides to honour the Labour Court and prevent disruption for holidaymakers. However, we await the Government to honour a Labour Court recommendation issued to one of its agencies and prevent disruption to vital services for people with disabilities.”
He added: “These workers have gone to the Labour Court, achieved a recommendation and now face a body which is fully publicly funded and refusing to implement it.”
SIPTU Activist and National Advocacy Service staff member, Suzy Byrne, said: “I and my colleagues are appalled with the way we have been treated. We carry out vital and confidential work with some of those most at risk, providing in-person advocacy interventions in areas including housing, access to justice, health care, safeguarding and decision-making support.”
She added: “This work includes supporting people to attend meetings with state agencies, helping them in discussions and instructions in court cases and working closely with them to support decision-making in hospitals and long care settings. We are committed to the people we work with and our work. It is saddening that we have been left with no choice but to resume strike action.”
County Tipperary advocate, Kilkenny woman Anna Fox, has been telling The KCLR Daily why she and her colleagues felt they had to take action;
KCLR News has contacted the Citizens Information Board and also the Department of Social Welfare for comment – the Department has forwarded the following statement;
“Minister Humphreys acknowledges and values the important services that the National Advocacy Service for People with Disabilities (NAS) provides.
The Minister understands that the Board of the National Advocacy Service and the Citizens Information Board have agreed to implement a Labour Court Recommendation that staff in NAS should be paid the same as comparable grades in the Citizens Information Service (CIS). The recommendation did not say which grades within the CIS should be used as benchmarks for this purpose.
Regrettably, talks led by former Labour Court Chair Kevin Duffy to implement this recommendation broke down on Friday without agreement and SIPTU has advised that strike action is to commence from today.
The Minister understands that a number of offers were made at the four-day talks but that all were rejected by the union.
Offers included an undertaking to be bound by an independent assessment to establish the grades within the CIS to which the NAS staff would be benchmarked, immediate measures to address pay divergences within NAS and an immediate pay increase for all NAS employees.
Significantly, the immediate pay increase for all staff went beyond the Labour Court’s recommendation, which was limited to four grades in NAS.
Offers were also made whereby relevant NAS employees in the four grades covered by the Labour Court’s recommendation would receive the majority of the increased pay they sought immediately, based on the SIPTU submissions regarding which grades are comparable, with any balance to be paid once the independent assessment of grade comparability was completed.
On foot of the rejection of these offers, the Minister understands that the NAS strike action is to re-commence from today, which is deeply unfortunate and will impact people with disabilities.
The Minister strongly urges all parties to reconvene to settle this dispute as quickly as possible in order to reduce unnecessary impact on the people who use the services of NAS.”
