Paul Murphy urges pay parity for medical scientists

First of all I want to really pay tribute to the medical scientists in the gallery and the thousands of medical scientists who are not in the gallery who are on the front line again today back at work. It's interesting that both our motion and the government's counter motion refer to the medical scientists as the hidden heroes of the health service. So no matter what happens, after the vote tonight, officially, the Dáil will recognise these workers as hidden heroes. And that's what they are. That was demonstrated above all during Covid. Yesterday some of the workers in Tala were telling me that during Covid some had to work 14 or 15 days with no days off. Incredible pressure, incredible stress. And these are workers who suffer from pay inequality, who suffer from burnout as a result of the number of unfilled positions, unfilled positions, and who suffer from a lack of clear and appropriate career progression for the vast majority of them. And I'm sure the workers will, you know, welcome being described as hidden heroes officially by the Dáil. But I'm also sure, to be honest, that a bit like the claps for the health service generally, they would really like if that rhetorical commitment to these workers was matched by an actual commitment in terms of paying them for the work that they do, and in terms of treating them with inequality, treating them with equality, with, for example, their colleagues, the biochemists who do very similar work. And that's what they want to see, and that's what we want to see. Obviously, there's been a lot of changes since we originally announced our plans for the motion. The fact that the MLSA and HSE are now in the Labour Court with the strike-off for the time being. We hope that the political pressure, above all from the strike, from the opposition parties, from people before profit, has helped the workers, that this motion has helped the workers, and we intend to keep that pressure up to ensure the workers get the pay equality that they deserve. Too often, though, and this is the experience of the medical scientists again and again, workers have been promised something only for those promises to be forgotten. In this case, promised talks and so on, okay, the workers are engaging in that very genuinely, but there's a need to keep up the pressure. It's only the action and the pressure that has got the situation this far, and it is crucial, and we intend to commit to keeping up the pressure up until the point that pay parity is achieved. One of the frustrating things for me in listening to the debate and participating in the debates last week with leaders' questions, again yesterday listening to leaders' questions, and I presume today, is the way the Government speaks about it, you'd think it was someone else's fault. And I presume we'll get this from the Minister today, you know, all words of sympathy and hidden heroes and so on, but that somehow this is someone else's fault, that it isn't within the Government's gift to resolve the situation right now, it's a relatively small amount of money to say these workers deserve pay equality. And if you go back and look at the history of this, that is evidently clear. Back in 1997, the Labour Relations Commission recommended the establishment of an expert group for medical laboratory technicians, technologists, as part of a set of proposals to settle their pay claims. The expert group recognised the increasingly scientific and clinical role of the profession and the increased educational requirements for the role. That was something that came across, again, in speaking to the workers, the continuous professional development that is required for medical scientists. It therefore recommended restructuring the profession of medical scientists based on an existing grade in laboratories, that of clinical biochemists. Clinical biochemists work in one section of the lab, they provide a service interacting with clinical pathways and furthering scientific influence on patient care. This was the vision for laboratory medicine, extending that to all sections. Then in 2001, it was Micheál Martin, then Minister for Health, who received the expert group report proposing pay parity for the medical scientists. That was the promise made to these workers 21 years ago. But 21 years on, the workers are still paid 8% less on average than biochemists. The medical scientists have fulfilled their end of the bargain. They have done everything that the report suggested, but the HSE and successive Ministers for Health have broken their promises. There can be no more kicking the can down the road. There can be no more washing the hands of it. The then Minister for Health is now the Taoiseach. The Government should simply pledge that it will provide the funding for pay parity so that this wrong can be righted. You look at the impact of the years of austerity, the damaging public sector agreements on the medical scientists workforce and the impact in terms of the public sector testing capacity. Again, speaking yesterday, some of the workers said they thought there were 25 vacant positions in the matter currently. Across the country, one in five positions unfilled. That means extra pressure on those in work. Services have reached a level where staffing is no longer sustainable. And in terms of the numbers of people who are coming through college, through three courses, there isn't the throughput there to replace those positions. And then you have a situation of pay inequality. Again, the workers were saying to me, look, we want to work. We want to contribute to the public health service. But if we wanted to get better pay, actually there are jobs in private industry where we can simply move to. And these workers would like to be contributing to the public health service. But they also have to pay the bills. They have to try and move out of home. They have to try and pay rent. They have to try and pay for groceries in the context of the cost of living crisis. Yet medical scientists continue to be paid at least 8% less than promised when the expert group was agreed. All medical scientists ask is to be paid the same as other scientists carrying out identical work side by side with them. I thought an interesting point emerged yesterday when I was speaking to the workers. It's very clear when you're on the picket lines, this is overwhelmingly a feminized workforce, about 80% women. Is it an accident that those group of workers who they do identical work to and are paid 8% less are a workforce that is about 50-50 men and women or slightly more men? It raises a question over again the undervaluing of the work of women, which is a consistent feature right across society in terms of care work generally being undervalued and underpaid and predominantly feminized professions. The medical scientists were put in an impossible situation. Again, none of them wanted to withdraw these services but they were faced with a situation where again and again the can has been kicked down the road and they had no choice but to engage in action. It's a sign of their resolve that 98% of members voted for industrial action, their first since 1969. They deferred it in order to accept an invitation for talks but again satisfactory progress was not achieved and then industrial action began and got us to this point. In relation to the government's counter motion, it says a lot about this government that the MLSA have been seeking a breakdown of the numbers of medical scientist grades for 18 months now, but it took this dull motion from people before profit to finally get the figures from the government. The total number of medical scientists remains virtually unchanged since 2011 when the core working day was increased to 8am to 8pm longer than most other grades. Since then the workload and complexity of work has increased exponentially but again the workforce has remained stagnant. The government in the counter motion talked about the review by Dr Colm Henry but the MLSA were told back in March 2021 that the report would be done within three or six months. The working group was only formed back in February 2022 with no representatives of the MLSA. The government cannot be allowed to use these reviews to kick the can down the road or to dodge political responsibility. The workers are very determined, Minister, they have very broad public support, they have our unstinting support. So I really encourage the government to act, to settle this dispute, to grant pay equality. Thank you.