WORKERS in the water services section of Limerick City and County Council were the first in the country to overwhelmingly vote in favour of strike action in a row that could cost them up to €600 a month.
Local authority water services workers have declared disputes in four areas in the country following a Government decision to establish Uisce Éireann as an independent entity to deal with water services and give local authority employees a choice to move to the new body or remain with the councils.
More than 100 affected members of SIPTU working with Limerick City and County Council voted this week by a massive 98 per cent for strike action and 96 per cent to take industrial action if the council’s don’t honour a Government agreement.
SIPTU organiser in the sector, Brendan O’Brien told the Limerick Post that the issue is “local authorities putting their own interpretation on a Ministerial directive.”
He explained that it had been agreed in talks between Government and the Unions that whether workers decided to move to the new entity or stay where they were, their terms and conditions, including rostered on-call overtime, would be honoured.
“But what we have been hearing on the ground is that local authorities are not clear in their understanding of that. We reverted to the Minister, who reiterated that the terms and conditions would not change but councils still haven’t clarified that.”
Should workers accept changes in their conditions and practices while remaining as employees of the local authority. they stand to lose up to €600 a month in their pay packets.
“Limerick is one of the larger local authorities to employ people n these services and our members have cast an overwhelming vote in favour of taking action” the SIPTU organiser said.
Employers have said in documentation that the workers will not be worse off after the reorganisation.
The percentages of those voting in favour of industrial action in the ballots completed so far in Limerick, Cork, Dún Laoghaire/Rathdown and Fingal are all in the 90s and the process is scheduled to be completed nationally by May 4 when the union’s water services committee will meet to decide on how to proceed with industrial action.
SIPTU says that measures to minimise disruption to homes will be considered in the event that the dispute results in strike action, “but disruption to users both domestic and industrial is inevitable if water services workers go on strike”.
