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THE COMPANIES OPERATING the state’s three emergency 999 call centres have questioned claims that a strike by operators will not affect the provision of emergency services.
Workers in the Navan centre are striking for 12 hours today in a dispute over pay, working conditions and trade union rights.
The Communications Workers’ Union has assured members of the public that the action will not impact on emergency answering services as two other centres will continue to operate as usual.
However, Conduit Global and BT Ireland said this morning that the union “cannot make promises to the public about what will happen to the service as it does not have a role in contingency planning”.
The third centre remains open this morning, they said, and an extra fourth site has been set up to give operators a choice of location to avoid what they called “the large numbers of unaffiliated protesters that the CWU have apparently invited along”.
The companies also criticised the union for not revealing how many members it has in the call centres.
It said the CWU had claimed that 84% of members supported the strike in a recent ballot but not clarified the specific number of workers who backed the vote.
“In effect, a non-recognised union has gone into a company, has not revealed its membership in that company, and brought about industrial action,” they said in a joint statement.
‘Disappointed’
The companies said earlier that there are 55 operators in total working on the emergency all answering service, spread across three counties on day and night shifts, and that it believed no more than 12 operators would therefore be protesting.
But Ian McArdle of the CWU disputed this figure on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, saying over 75% of staff at the Navan centre were union members.
The union is seeking a living staff wage of €11.50 an hour, collective bargaining rights, a fair on-call policy and an end to “punitive” suspensions.
Conduit Global has said it is “very disappointed” to see industrial action going ahead.
The stoppage began at 8am this morning and will continue until 8pm tonight.
The Department of Communications awarded the emergency call service contract to BT Ireland in 2009 before it was outsourced to Conduit Global.
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Can I have my money back now
It’s like’…..burning your furniture – to keep warm!
Why are PwC saying this instead of IBRC and NAMA?
As property prices start to rise nama , ibrc start to dump property
Can someone explain why?
Dumping loans philip, not property. They’re Dumping the loans as they’re non-performing and want to get them off the balance sheet.
If they had the patience, they’d put arrangements in place to allow the properties to return to positive equity and then seek a sale, this recouping more of the tax payers money.
Unfortunately, they’ll sell the loans for a discount and allow the new purchasers to do this and net a tidy profit.
The article outlines that IBRC (IBROKE would probably be a better name) will offload € 15 billion in loans.
Yet the linked article tells us that IBROKE have already offloaded 90% of its loanbook, € 19.8 billion out of € 21.7 billion leaving just € 1.9 billion on hand.
This can only mean, if the previous article is correct, that it is NAMA that is offloading the majority of the loans.
Why the subterfuge?
Why make people think that this is some kind of joint enterprise when it is NAMA that is leading the charge?
Have the shiny suit brigade from the canal something to hide?
Given their obsession with secrecy it would not surprise me if they have, perhaps selling the loans to some preferred customer with an inside track at a serious discount.
The way things go it will all be wrapped up before we know anything, plus ça change.
Who in their right mind would buy this junk?
It might only be worth 30% of face value but if you buy it for 20% it’s a good deal. For the buyer anyway.
@ Irish Revolution
The Banks?
Hedge funds bought it. They will now sell off all the ghost estates etc at a lower price so people that have houses for sale at the min will eventually have to sell for half or take them off the market.
Fab house here in drogheda asking price €325. Hilarious. You could now nearly get a house for that on raglan road or ailsbury road!! So that house is realistically worth less than €150 really.
People and notions ha
What about Bank of Scotland selling on my mortgage & others in their Irish portfolio to a company called Tanager Ltd.
I’m in a tizzy all day because I don’t know what it means for us.
have your say