Labour Court recommends talks on reducing ambulance crews’ on-call duties

The Labour Court recommended immediate discussions between the Southern Health Board and the Services Industrial Professional Technical Union on a planned elimination of on-call duties for emergency medical technicians. The recommendation was signed on 20 October 2003. The union said an agreement meant an extra crew should be assigned to each of eight community ambulance stations. It said 32 technicians at those stations worked 44 hours on call each week, compared with 16 hours for other technicians. The Board disputed the union’s interpretation and estimated that the requested change would cost €1.65 million. The Court recommended that talks seek to meet both sides’ aims and finish by 1 January 2004. If the parties could not agree, it said it would make a definitive recommendation on request.