Council outdoor and emergency staff defer strike action
The rising floods were not the only thing disrupting the normal run of business in the county this week. The National Day of Strike yesterday closed schools, health clinics, local authority offices and government offices, as well as other public services in the county.
SIPTU, SIPTU Local Authority Professional Officers, and SIPTU Fire Services deferred industrial action on Tuesday, November 24 in order to continue to deal with the ongoing flooding crisis. Emergency administrative cover was provided.
Leitrim County Council was not in a position to open their public offices but advised that normal service will resume today, Wednesday, november 25.
Approximately 112 members of Leitrim County Council outdoor staff joined local authorities in Cork, Galway, Clare and Roscommon in taking a rain check on the strike to help out locals with flooding control.
SIPTU shop steward with Leitrim County Council, Paddy Beirne told the Leitrim Observer that they made the decision to call off the strike on Monday morning to help out with the "flooding crisis" in the county.
Mr Beirne said although they still supported strike action "it was not appropriate" to strike when residents and businesses were suffering due to floods.
Mr Beirne said the outdoor council staff were busy diverting traffic and helping people secure their homes and businesses. Mr Beirne said the council "could never have been prepared for this amount of flooding."
Finian Joyce, Chief Fire Officer, Leitrim Fire Service, said they also refrained from striking yesterday to be on call for any emergency or urgent services needed by the public as water levels rise in the county.
All other Leitrim County Council staff went ahead with the strike on Tuesday.
Members of almost all public service unions affiliated to ICTU including AHCPS, ASTI, CPSU, IFUT, INO, INTO, POA, PSEU, SIPTU, TUI, Unite and the craft unions showed their anger at the Government by taking part in the National Strike yesterday.
Teachers and hospital staff, local authority and public service workers defied the floods throughout the county to picket outside their place of work on Tuesday in an effort to push the Government into "meaningful negotiations" with the unions.
The county's office of Social and Family Affairs, Social Welfare and DVO office were closed to the public due to the action.
All customers who were due to sign-on for Jobseeker's Benefit or Jobseeker's Allowance on November 24 at the Social Welfare Office were notified in writing about their next signing day.
The vast majority of social welfare customers who receive their weekly payment by electronic means into their accounts were effected by the strike and will have a delay in their payment.
A spokeswoman for the Department said, "the loss of a full day's processing time for a system as large as the Department of Social and Family Affairs will regrettably mean that some 55,000 customers who are in receipt of a weekly payment by cheque or directly to their financial institution on Wednesday will be delayed by one day." Payments to customers on other days of the week were not expected to be delayed by the industrial action.
In the interests of patient safety and quality, all non-emergency hospital procedures were cancelled on Monday and Tuesday of this week. All out patient clinics scheduled for Tuesday were postponed.
Hospitals contacted their patients by letter, telephone and in some cases SMS text messages to advise them of services and procedures affected by the industrial action. Appointments are being rescheduled as soon as possible.
Emergency Departments and Ambulance Services operated a limited service on Tuesday. The HSE's Swine Flu Vaccination clinics were also closed on Tuesday.
There was an emergency/out of hours level of cover akin to Christmas Day staffing rosters for wards, emergency departments, radiography, ambulance service, theatres and recovery, sexual assault units and drug treatment.
Meanwhile, the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors, which are forbidden by law to strike, issued a message of support to unions and said it had instructed members not to make themselves available for overtime on the day of National Strike.
The unions are expected to return to talks with the Government on the long-term restructuring of the public service, and short-term measures to cut the State pay bill but they announced a further day of protest on Thursday, Decemeber 3 if no deal is reached during the talks.
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Weather for Carrick-on-Shannon, Ireland
Sunday 05 February 2012
Today
Light rain
Temperature: 6 C to 6 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: South west
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 6 C to 11 C
Wind Speed: 7 mph
Wind direction: West
