Management at St James’s Hospital in Dublin is seeking to charge staff up to €500 per year to park their car.

The country’s largest hospital is facing a potential strike over the move, with Siptu planning to ballot members for industrial action.

Management at St James’s told staff just before Christmas that the planned introduction of car parking charges was linked to the construction of the new National Children’s Hospital on its campus.

It said the development would result in a significant reduction in staff parking capacity.

Management said a €500 charge would be levied in 2016 for parking on the St James’s Hospital site as well as in a nearby location known as St James’s Steel.

It said an annual charge of €350 would be introduced for staff parking at the Royal Hospital in Kilmainham, but that access to staff parking in the evening and weekends would remain free.

‘Absolutely unacceptable’

Siptu health division organiser Paul Bell said it was absolutely unacceptable for management to seek to remove an integral part of members’ terms and conditions without any engagement with their union.

“It is also unacceptable that, having only begun a process of modest pay restoration for public service health workers, that management believes it can put its hand straight into our members’ pockets and dismantle a long-established benefit without any engagement,” he said.

“Such a unilateral action by management requires a reciprocal response. Commencing next week, Siptu will host a series of information meetings at St James’s with the intention of balloting for strike action if management attempt to enforce this charge.”

Public transport

A spokesman for St James’s Hospital said making it easier for staff to get to work using public transport was a key objective of a new smarter travel initiative launched in recent months.

He said St James’s was centrally located in Dublin and had more public transport links than any other hospital in the country.

The spokesman said the charges would apply to all grades of staff in the hospital.

He said during construction of the National Children’s Hospital there would be 527 peak-time parking spaces available for staff use on the campus, as well as a further 160 places each at the Royal Hospital and St James’s Steel, a short walking distance away.