I saw this message posted on Facebook today and I cannot imagine the anger and annoyance in treating people so disrespectfully. Many companies shut their doors and made no profit in the last six months but one sector where there was probably no shortage of overtime and long hours was the ambulance service that tirelessly went to and from hospitals knowing that their own lives were on the line as they handled the patients and the situation as best they could.
The public clapping has stopped here in Madrid but the ambulances never stopped and the sirens were never silenced even when all the streets went quiet, as the world hid from a pandemic and we applauded frontline workers from our balconies every night at eight while they worked till very late.
MAKE SOME NOISE: I filmed this while out shopping & can't believe I have to remind people of it
Dear members of SIPTU Ambulance Sector.
Members I and other represent, cannot get wages they have worked for in these difficult times due to HSE Bureaucracy.
SIPTU Organiser, Miriam Hamilton, said: “Since the beginning of the pandemic, our members in the NAS have gone above and beyond the call of duty to provide a full emergency service in communities across the country. Our members also took on a substantial amount of additional and crucial roles to swab and test for Covid-19. They have visited people’s homes, residential services, meat factories and established pop up testing facilities in communities to stop the spread of the coronavirus. This is no way to treat these loyal and dedicated workers who have been on the frontline from day one.” She added: “It is deeply frustrating and of great concern that the NAS management has today advised us that due to staffing shortages in the payroll department emergency medical technicians in Intermediate Care Services will only get basic pay, with no shift pay or overtime. It’s not acceptable. Our members working on the frontline are essentially being financially penalised for the failure of the HSE to recruit vital frontline staff into the service.”
SIPTU Trade Union
I couldn't help but create this meme from the film Apocalypse Now, after hearing the news and will hopefully remind people to MAKE SOME NOISE for the people who already earned our applause.
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