SIPTU members employed in the Citizens Information Service (CIS) have begun a ballot for strike action which could close dozens of Citizens Information Centres around the country due to a failure by their employers and the Department of Social Protection to respect a Labour Court recommendation on a pay increase for staff.
SIPTU Deputy General Secretary, John King, said: “CIS staff provide a vital in-person service informing people of their rights and advocating on their behalf across the country. It is a service which our members are very committed to providing and will greatly regret being forced to suspend for an indefinite period unless the State provides them with what its own industrial relations court for dispute resolution, the Labour Court, has said is a fair and just pay rise.
“Yet again we have a situation where a Government Department, in this case the Department of Social Protection, is attempting to shirk its responsibility to hundreds of workers who provide a vital public service on behalf of the State. They attempt to explain away this failure to respect these workers through a hall of mirrors trick in which the funding Government Department claims not to have an employer relationship with staff due to the monies flowing through supposedly independent companies before making it to them.”
He added: “This situation is intolerable and workers throughout the Community Sector will no longer be treated as second-class citizens and have their commitment to the services they provide used against them due to a reluctance to take action which could impact clients. Rather, as with their colleagues in the National Advocacy Service earlier this year, they are showing they are willing to stand up in order to protect their rights and the future of the vital services they provide.”
SIPTU Community Sector Organiser, Brendan Carr, said: “Approximately 300 workers operating nearly 50 offices across the country will be impacted by a vote for strike action. The proposed action will be indefinite in duration and result in the full closure of this vital service until action is taken to respect the Labour Court recommendation that was secured in June this year.”
The CIS ballot is scheduled to be counted on Friday, 20th September, in Liberty Hall, Dublin 1.