Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I am a former hospital worker, and the Minister will appreciate it when I say that hospital workers are the glue that holds hospitals together.

Clerical staff, porters, care assistants, chefs and other hospital workers of that magnitude keep hospitals afloat. The crux of the dispute relates to moneys owed to these 10,000 workers. The matter goes back to 2015 and the job evaluation scheme introduced under the Lansdowne Road agreement. The HSE and the Department of Health agreed that the pay increases recommended under the job evaluation scheme should be paid to the workers. The workers are asking for moneys owed to them in respect of changed job responsibilities and descriptions over that period. They are asking for the money to be paid to them now, rather than at a later date.

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