UPDATE (8am, 19th Dec): Minister of State Jennifer Murnane O’Connor believes the unions are set to make an announcement confirming a resolution’s been found;
Carlow Mayor Cllr Paul Doogue too ‘would be very positive’ that the issue’s been sorted;
Earlier story;
The provision of Caredoc services over Christmas in the Carlow and Kilkenny area is still unknown.
Health Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill last night said the pay dispute between Caredoc and the HSE, which sparked 24-hour picket lines at bases across the south east yesterday, has been resolved by agreement.
Caredoc says it’s secured sufficient HSE funding to meet the demands of INMO and SIPTU unions and to end the current strike action.
A spokesperson in a statement to KCLR News last night says “Payment will be processed immediately to all staff, once funds are discharged by the HSE. The increase in funding has been agreed to sustain Caredoc services going forward.”
They add; “We have requested the INMO and SIPTU unions to seek an immediate return to work tonight, in the interests of patient safety.”
Minister of State at the Health Department, Carlow Kilkenny Fianna Fáil TD Jennifer Murnane O’Connor, called it an ‘important breakthrough’;
Unions aren’t convinced.
The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation’s (INMO) Industrial Relations Officer Gráinne Walsh says however; “No formal offer has been received from the employer, CareDoc, therefore the dispute is not resolved. We will await the details of discussions between HSE and Caredoc that the unions at the centre of this dispute, the INMO and SIPTU, were not party to. Once details have been received we will then put them to our members for consideration.
