Emergency line operators in Navan to strike today
BT has issued a media update regarding the strike.
“There has been a great turnout of 999 operators in the emergency call answering service centres this morning," the company stated.
"As the union will not reveal the number of members who voted for industrial action, we only have the unofficial feedback to go on which is a large number of employees did not think strike action was necessary.
"The CWU continues to send out incorrect information, irresponsibly claiming to have a plan on how calls would be handled today. They do not have any grounds to back this up.
- We want to reassure the public that the union has no role in how calls are being managed.
- No emergency service centre has closed.
- An extra fourth site has been set up to give operators a choice of location in order to avoid the large numbers of unaffiliated protesters that the CWU have apparently invited along.
"BT would like to thank all of the Conduit Global staff for their ongoing professionalism and engagement.”
999 operators in Navan are to strike today in a dispute over pay and conditions.
They will not answer emergency calls from 8am to 8pm.
However, other 999 call centres in Dublin and Ballyshannon are expected to operate as normal.
Ian McArdle of the Communications Workers Union, who is representing staff involved in the dispute, said that it wasn't an easy decision for their members.
"The members in the 999 service have taken this decision very reluctantly," he said.
"They've obviously tried to engage with the management team directly, their union has tried to engage with the management and that hasn't yielded anything by way of dialogue unfortunately.
"The members are very much aware that the work they do is a vital public service, a frontline service."
Conduit Global, who runs the service, said it is disappointed with the action, saying it has made significant changes.
“Conduit Global is very disappointed that despite the significant progress the company has made with ongoing employee engagement over the past few weeks, the union continues to plan strike action,” a company statement read.
“Facts have been widely reported that rebut the union’s claims and these include that staff’s average pay are already above Living Wage; suspension and leave policy has been changed and the ‘time off the phones policy’ revoked and we have listened to staff to create a new on-call schedule.
“Elections of staff representatives took place last week and were welcomed by the staff. The union, whose membership in our company is unknown, does not seem to be up-to-date on the changes within our company and the positive feedback received from employees.”
