Around 2000 SIPTU members in the National Ambulance Service across the country voted overwhelmingly for industrial action, up to and including strike action.
The result is due to a long-standing dispute with the HSE over its failure to implement the recommendations of an independent report on updating staff salary scales to reflect changes in their responsibilities and workload over the last 20 years.
The dispute involves SIPTU members working as Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT), Paramedics, Advanced Paramedics, Specialist Paramedics and Paramedic Supervisors.
“The overwhelming mandate from our members for industrial action up to and including strike action is an indication of the depth of feeling within the service that their sacrifice and commitment over the last 20 years to the professionalisation and modernisation of the service have been forgotten about by the HSE,” SIPTU Ambulance Sector Organiser, John McCamley, said.
“Ambulance personnel have implemented changes within the service, seeing the model move away from just a patient transport to a higher degree of pre-hospital care and treatment.”
EMT and Paramedic grades have increased their responsibility for administering various medications by 89% and 83%, respectively, since 2011.
Operational practice guidelines for dealing with different incidents have increased dramatically over the years, including the need for additional training and qualifications.
The Independent Review of Roles and Responsibilities report, published in May 2020, was to address these ongoing changes, including updating salary scales. To date, its recommendations have yet to be implemented.
“SIPTU members working in the National Ambulance Service are highly trained and educated health professionals,” McCamley said.
“They work in a largely autonomous and occasionally hazardous environment. Our members have to exercise clinical judgement, deliver complex and lifesaving care, including the administration of medications. They perform lifesaving interventions and make complex decisions about specific care pathways.”
He continued: “All we are asking is that, like other health professionals, their training qualifications are respected and recognised in an appropriate grading and pay structure which takes account of the major workplace changes which have taken place over the last 20 years.”
He added: “Given this overwhelming result by SIPTU members for industrial action, we call on the HSE to implement the recommendations of the independent report without preconditions and to introduce enhanced pay scales which properly recognise the training and professional level at which our members are now carrying out their duties on a daily basis.”