Consultants call for action to avert major dispute

ONE of the hospital consultant organisations involved in the collapsed talks on new contracts has called for decisive action to avoid an irreparably damaging dispute.

The Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) said the talks could be back on track again if the employer side gave an assurance that the 68 consultant posts being advertised would be filled on agreed contractual terms.

The other consultants’ group, the Irish Hospital Consultants’ Association (IHCA), pulled out of the talks on Monday over the decision to advertise the posts on terms that had not been agreed.

The IHCA said it would go back to the negotiation table if the new consultants were employed under the present contract.

The IMO, which has not withdrawn from the talks, has written to the talks chairman, Mark Connaughton SC, pointing out that the decision to advertise the posts was in breach of his specific request that the parties refrain from unilateral acts during negotiations.

And the organisation has also claimed that the decision breached the terms of the Towards 2016 Agreement regarding new workplace related initiatives that have a significant effect on staff.

Both consultant bodies have urged its members not to apply for the posts and have written to bodies representing doctors in Europe, the US, New Zealand, Australia and Canada informing them of their concerns.

The IHCA’s national council will meet in Dublin on Sunday to decide how they will show both the minister and the Health Service Executive (HSE) that they are not going to be treated with contempt.

The IMO warned that the dispute would exacerbate difficulties already apparent in the health services and diminish the prospect of a new approach to resolving contractual difficulties and enabling better employee relations in general.

The organisation also warned that if an agreed basis was not found for the resumption of talks they would be obliged to review the various avenues open to them to deal with the unilateral move to recruit consultants on imposed terms.

Meanwhile, the Health Service Executive Employers’ Agency has changed a clause in the proposed contract on advocacy making it no longer necessary for consultants to get permission from the hospital chief executive before speaking out on issues of concern.

The IHCA said the change was a step in the right direction but the IMO said the clause had so many qualifications that it would not be acceptable to them.