Press Release - 16th April 2013

• IMO votes overwhelmingly to reject proposals for Croke Park II

• 92% vote against proposals.

• Union welcomes overall rejection of proposals

Tuesday, 16 April 2013. Members of the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) have voted overwhelmingly to reject the proposals by the Labour Relations Commission (LRC) for a Revised Agreement on Pay and Reform, commonly known as the Croke Park II agreement. The proposals were rejected by 92% of those voting in the IMO ballot with just 8% in favour. Turnout was 43%.

Speaking today, Steve Tweed, Director of Industrial Relations at the IMO, said that the vote was a very strong endorsement for the strategy of the IMO leadership who had walked out of the talks at the LRC before the proposals were agreed and who joined forces with three other unions to lead a nationwide campaign seeking the rejection of the proposals.

He said; “Our members are at the frontline in the health services and they can see the huge damage being done to patient services and working conditions from years of austerity. Our members have given a clear signal that enough is enough and patient services and working conditions must be protected and rebuilt.”

Mr. Tweed also welcomed the news of the wider rejection of the proposals by the Trade Union movement. He said; “people dismissed us when – together with our colleagues in the INMO, CPSU and UNITE - we launched a nationwide campaign against these proposals. But clearly the wider union membership has agreed with the stance we took and endorsed our campaign.”

Mr. Tweed concluded by calling on the Government to engage constructively with public sector unions to agree a way forward; “the IMO believes that the Government can achieve the savings it requires by engaging in constructive dialogue with Public Sector Unions on how savings can be made in non pay areas of expenditure and by tackling waste in particular. The mistake of the recent negotiations was the failure to move the agenda away from the easy and over used issue of pay. The challenge is to save money without further penalising front line workers who have already given too much.”