Unions angry at health board plan to cut jobs

HEALTH unions have expressed alarm over plans by a health board to cut 155 jobs in key services, including nursing, social work and therapy.

The South Western Area Health Board (SWAHB) is to put full-time temporary workers on half-time, let temporary contracts run out without renewal and allow permanent posts to expire as staff resign or retire.

The cuts are to be made across the board in administration, medical and therapeutic services over the next four months in what is feared could be the start of a fresh round of cutbacks across health services countrywide.

Health unions condemned the move, which they said was announced as a fait accompli at a hastily convened meeting last week in breach of the consultation procedures set out in the national partnership agreements.

Irish Nurses Organisation representative Colette Mullins said any cutbacks in the number of nursing posts would have a “dramatic” effect on services throughout the health board region, which covers south Dublin, west Wicklow and all of Co Kildare.

“We were told that temporary people with less than a year’s service would be the first to be affected, and that includes nurses,” said Ms Mullins.

“It’s obvious the impact it will have if people working a 39-hour week are suddenly put on 20 hours.

“It will have a dramatic effect on services that are already stretched and understaffed.”

Impact official Stephen O’Neill said the union suspected putting people on short-time would lead to jobs being lost altogether. “People can’t live on half pay, so they will be leaving and seeking jobs elsewhere.”

The cuts, and the unions’ response, are to be discussed at an emergency meeting of health board unions in Dublin tomorrow, and with a representative of the Labour Relations Commission on Thursday.

Impact is also demanding a meeting with the SWAHB chief executive to get full details of where the axe will fall, and has called for the cuts to be called off until the board’s difficulties can be thrashed out with the unions. “We could certainly engage in discussions that could alleviate some of the difficulties. There are staff who are looking for career breaks and others might want to go on half-time for family or other reasons.

“Some of the cuts could be achieved this way,” said Mr O’Neill.

He said the cuts could make meeting the conditions of the benchmarking payments impossible to achieve.

“We’re supposed to be finding ways of extending opening hours to between 8am and 8pm and we were committed to doing it with the existing staff.

“But that kind of improvement is unrealistic if staff numbers are to be reduced.”

In a statement, the SWAHB stressed it had no plans to lay off permanent staff, but it had to comply with an employment ceiling of 4,297 imposed last year with a December 2003 deadline and it was currently 155 posts above the quota.

In conflict with workers’ claims that they were kept in the dark about the cuts, the board said it was “continuing to engage in discussions with staff and unions”. It added it was working to minimise the effects on services and staff.