Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue, which I am taking on behalf of the Minister for Health.

Firstly, I wish to acknowledge and pay tribute to the dedication, professionalism and commitment of all medical scientists throughout the country. As the Deputy has quite rightly said, medical scientists play a valued and vital role within our health service. They worked tirelessly during the pandemic. Their efforts in testing Covid-19 samples were and remain very significant. It was not just during Covid that they have worked tirelessly. They work tirelessly at other times, as the Deputy has outlined. The Government recognises the extraordinary contribution made by those working in our health services, which is evidenced by the decision taken earlier this year to provide a pandemic bonus payment.

I am fully aware of the ongoing and long-standing claim for pay parity between medical scientists and clinical biochemists. Health management has been engaging with the Medical Laboratory Scientists Association, MLSA, on these issues at the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, under the terms of the current public service agreement, Building Momentum. As the MLSA is part of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, the association is bound by the terms of the agreement for the remainder of its lifetime.

Building Momentum includes the process of sectoral bargaining to deal with all outstanding claims across the public sector. The bargaining fund equates to 1% of basic pensionable pay for each bargaining unit set up under the agreement. The MLSA requested, and was facilitated, with its own bargaining unit in the sectoral bargaining process in order to progress its claim for parity. As such, the MLSA has at its disposal a fund equivalent to 1% of basic pay of all medical scientists. While this fund is insufficient to resolve its long-standing claims, it can partially resolve them and the remainder could be addressed in a future public service agreement as per the terms of Building Momentum.

As I have previously stated, the MLSA and health management have been engaged in talks over the last number of months with the aim of finding a way to advance the claim through the sectoral bargaining process. Several options were explored during these talks but to date but none have satisfactorily resolved the claim within the terms set out under Building Momentum. As this matter could not be resolved, it has been referred to the Public Sector Agreement Group, PSAG, which is the dispute resolution mechanism that was set up under Building Momentum, twice since January. At the latest meeting on 11 May, the PSAG recommended that the matter be immediately referred to the WRC and that industrial peace be maintained in the meantime. Health management met the MLSA under the auspices of the WRC on 17 May but, unfortunately, no resolution was reached.

The parties have accepted an invitation from the Labour Court today for an exploratory engagement in order that the court might establish whether, and how, it might assist the parties in finding a resolution to the matters in dispute. I welcome the decision by the MLSA to lift its strike action to attend this Labour Court engagement. The Government recognises that all of the State’s industrial relations machinery should be utilised to resolve the matter. As the Deputy has clearly said, all parties need to be at the table to find a mechanism that will prevent further strike action.

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