Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Finian McGrath, although I hoped the Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, would take this Commencement matter. I mean no disrespect to the Minister of State; it is just that I have more time for him than I do for the Minister.

The Government is denying pay increases to support staff in the healthcare sector who, as the Minister of State is aware, will be taking strike action on Thursday in 40 hospitals and care centres across the country. The staff include healthcare assistants, maternity care assistants, laboratory aides, surgical instrument technicians, catering staff, porters and maintenance workers, some of whom I have just met. Their salaries start at €24,500, or €28,000 for a healthcare assistant. The figure of €24,500 is approximately 14% of the salary of the Minister for Health.

The strike promises to be very disruptive. It has been caused directly by the Government's inability or unwillingness to keep its promises. In 2015 job evaluation for support staff was reintroduced under the terms of the public service stability agreement, PSSA, having been suspended at the height of the economic crisis in 2009. It was signed off on by the Departments of Health and Public Expenditure and Reform, as well as by the HSE. My union, SIPTU, has honoured the terms of the PSSA in full and its members voted to accept the first Lansdowne Road agreement on the basis that job evaluation would be reintroduced. According to the Government, the recession is over. In spite of this, wages have not been restored in line with recommendations.

In the spring of 2016 SIPTU balloted support staff on strike action as the HSE was prohibited by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform from implementing phases 1 and 2 of the job evaluation exercise. In the spring of 2017 the Workplace Relations Commission intervened and brokered an agreement which set out dates for phases 1, 2, 3 and 4 of the job evaluation exercise to be completed. The Minister of State will be aware that all deadlines in the Workplace Relations Commission agreement have been missed. Phases 1 and 2 of the job evaluation exercise were completed in August last year. Some 6,000 members in support grades represented by SIPTU were deemed to be entitled to upgrading in line with the agreement. In fairness, the HSE and the Department of Health accepted the outcome of the evaluations and applied for the €16.2 million - a paltry figure in the context of the overall health budget - needed for the pay increases. The application was declined and no budgetary provision was made.

Following meetings with the Departments and the HSE, SIPTU support staff grade workers voted to take action. The Workplace Relations Commission intervened and all parties met several times, including yesterday, with no resolution in sight. The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform has confirmed that what is owed to SIPTU members will not be paid until at least 2021, possibly under a new public service stability agreement. The presumption and arrogance of the Department of Health in aligning with that position are unbelievable and completely unacceptable. Not only is payment due now, it should have been made two years ago.

What is the point of an agreement if one side - the Government side - cannot be trusted to uphold its promises? The behaviour of the Government has been interpreted by the workers, some of whom I have just met, as disrespectful and dismissive, to put it mildly. They are furious. They believe their jobs are of no value in the eyes of the Government. That view has been reinforced by the lack of a ministerial intervention in the dispute which is heading for a very disruptive strike on Thursday. It will be the first of many such strikes. The Minister of State is responsible for the welfare of the workers and the upholding of their rights. How does he defend the deceitful actions of the Government?