UCH Galway
Action suspended
A work-to-rule by ward clerks at University College Hospital in Galway, due to begin this morning, has been suspended.
The suspension is to allow for further talks between the Western Health Board and SIPTU over the threatened laying-off of 169 health care workers.
The three main unions representing hospital and health care staff are resisting the moves by the Board to lay off the workers, which are part of a €1m budget cut demanded by the Department of Health.
The 40 ward clerks had voted for industrial action, which would initially have seen them refusing to answer phones at the West's largest acute hospital.
Medical and nursing staff had warned that this would cause very serious disruption in every department.
"Encouraging sign"The action was averted, however, when the Health Board agreed to re-instate four porters and domestic staff who had already been laid off.
SIPTU says it regards the re-instatement of the workers as "the first encouraging sign" that the Board is prepared to try to minimise the number of job losses.
The union is set to open a fresh round of talks with senior Board executives. It insists that the €1m budget saving is made by reducing costly office rents and by curbing members' travelling expenses.
IMPACT and the Irish Nurses' Organisation, which also oppose the cutbacks, say the Minister for Health and the Health Board must abandon the job cuts which are putting patient care at risk.
