Pay Strike in Ports, Meat Plants and Veterinary Services

NIPSA members working in some key areas across Veterinary Service Animal Health Group in the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) will commence five days strike action from Monday 30th October to Friday 3rd November.

Members working in ports will kick off the action by walking out at midnight and will then be joined by hundreds of members across the Veterinary Service Animal Health Group (VSAHG).

The action is in protest over the decision to impose a derisory pay award of £552 to all civil servants in Northern Ireland for 2022/23, when inflation was above 10%.  

The result of this action will be significant, including disruption at NI ports and in food processing.

NIPSA General Secretary, Carmel Gates said:

“Our members are fed up with derisory pay awards. They see their counterparts elsewhere on these islands receive significantly better pay and are no longer prepared to suffer in silence. They have been subjected to a sanctions budget which is intended to punish politicians.  Unfortunately, it is workers and public services that are being harmed.

There is a real and growing crisis across DAERA, with problems recruiting and retaining staff in VSAHG and the key reason is historically low pay. The latest paltry pay award, following decades of austerity and below inflation pay awards, is a further kick in the teeth to all hard-working civil servants.

These members play a vital role in ensuring we have a safe food supply.  Political decision makers have the power to address this issue by making the funds available to end pay inequality. There must now be urgent engagement with NIPSA and a commitment to provide the funds needed to resolve the dispute.”