Pringle calls on HSE to formally recognise PNA as trade union of choice for ambulance staff

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Updated: 4th July 2019

Thomas Pringle TD – July 4^th 2019

Independent TD for Donegal Thomas Pringle has raised the issue of trade union recognition within the health sector in the Dáil this week, the same week that the 500 PNA Ambulance members hold a protest rally outside Leinster House and a 24hr strike on the 19^th July.

During Topical Issues, Deputy Pringle outlined that on the 5^th of March a number of opposition TDs including Pringle wrote to the Minister for Health for a meeting to discuss the ongoing situation regarding Trade Union recognition of NASRA by the HSE in an attempt to assist the resolution of the dispute.

Pringle explains “Of course we heard nothing back in relation to this and again when we wrote on the 12^th of April the Minister refused to meet with the staff but did say he had asked his officials to engage with the HSE to explore ways forward to see if a resolution to this dispute can be progressed. This week during Topical Issues the Minister has failed yet again to provide an update of that engagement and any attempts from the Government’s side to seek a possible resolution to this dispute.

“Ahead of the planned strike on 19^th July and during the protest rally outside Leinster House I am calling on the Minister to take this opportunity at his doorstep to meet with the staff and with the HSE and start negotiations through the auspices of the Workplace Relations Commission.

“I continue to offer my full support to those bravely challenging the unfair situation ambulance staff face in terms of their right to trade union representation which has been unjustly curtailed by those in power.

“There are many PNA Ambulance staff in Donegal who are affected by this and are making their way to Dublin to protest. I look forward to meeting them today. I have heard time and time again the negative effects the lack of Government engagement on this issue is having on their work and in their lives. This won’t actually cost the Government anything. It’s about union recognition and nothing else. It’s time the Minister sorted this out once and for all.

“They have consistently refused to work through the Workplace Relations Commission which goes against the HSE’s own framework on dispute resolution and communications continues to come through the legal firm as opposed through the mechanism set up by this Government.

“My answer to the complacent Government is that Governments don’t just represent the organisation, they represent the people and the workers too and so should be standing up in the Dáil in defence of workers’ rights to trade union representation of their choice” concludes Pringle.

ENDS