Strike action inevitable due to lack of pay restoration

Thursday 20th February 2020, NCBI has received notice of industrial action by its Forsa union members to take place tomorrow Friday 21st February 2020 due to the inaction of HSE to restore their pay which was reduced in 2010. This will have a knock-on effect in our ability to deliver services to blind or visually impaired people tomorrow with assessments and other activities being postponed.

Chris White, NCBI CEO said “We understand why our staff are taking this action as we have tried multiple avenues to resolve this with the HSE but to no avail. It has been a very frustrating and exhausting process for us and our staff have been extremely patient especially when similar roles within the HSE or within similar Section 39 organisations have had their pay restored. This blatant discrimination between staff in similar roles cannot continue.”

“NCBI were not in the original group of 50 Section 39 organisations who were to have their pay restoration claims resolved and some of those organisations are still waiting. But more worrying is the HSE have not engaged with any of us to build a roadmap towards full restoration of pay for our staff. This lack of commitment by the HSE continues to make our staff feel devalued and under-appreciated.”