“St. Joseph’s Foundation confirms that the INMO, SIPTU and Fórsa trade unions have served notice of industrial action on all St. Joseph’s Foundation services to begin on 17/10/23 and to continue for an indefinite duration.
This planned industrial action is part of a national campaign for pay parity for Section 39 union members in St. Joseph’s Foundation who do similar work to colleagues in the HSE and other Section 38 voluntary organisations, but receive substantially lower pay.
Up until 2010, St. Joseph’s Foundation staff were paid on equal terms to their counterparts in the HSE and Section 38 organisations. During the economic crisis the HSE, Section 38 and Section 39 (including St. Joseph’s Foundation) organisations took substantial pay cuts. As the country’s economy recovered, our counterparts in the HSE and Section 38 organisations had these cuts reversed and pay increments awarded. Our staff in St. Joseph’s Foundation did not receive the subsequent increments and are still paid on 2008 pay scales.
For many years, St. Joseph’s Foundation has advocated for pay parity for our staff and we fully support staff demands to permanently align pay scales on an equitable basis with their peers in the HSE and Section 38 voluntary organisations.
Our valued employees are essential to deliver the critical services to children, adults and their families for which we are contracted by the HSE to provide each year. This pay inequity has created a recruitment and retention crisis for St. Joseph’s Foundation’s services resulting in significant vacancies in teams across children’s and adult services.
High vacancy and staff turnover rates negatively impact the quality and quantity of services we can offer to children, adults and their families. This issue will continue to impact service provision within St. Joseph’s Foundation.
While we support the requested pay increase, we are not in a position to fund it directly. St. Joseph’s Foundation continues to call on Government to implement pay alignment. In simple, but not exhaustive terms, the HSE funds, St. Joseph’s Foundation employs, manages and plans and our dedicated staff deliver.
We do not yet know the full impact the planned strike action will have on children, adults and families using our services. We will engage with Fórsa, SIPTU and the INMO over the coming week to try to minimize the disruption to our services. Our next meeting is on Monday 9th October.
We will keep staff, parents and service owners informed of the planned strike action and its impact on individual services over the coming days once we have more information.”