Hospital to slash staff allowances

ONE of the country’s largest voluntary hospitals is slashing staff allowances and asking workers to take unpaid leave as part of a raft of cost-cutting measures designed to save more than €4 million this year.

Management at Cork’s Mercy University Hospital (MUH) said last night that it has no option as it faces a €7.5m budget shortfall following the Health Service Executive’s (HSE) programme to reduce its overall expenditure by €1 billion this year.

The Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) condemned the move and said the cuts would result in the elimination of unsocial hours premiums and Saturday allowances, a reduction of on-call allowances and non-payment of maternity pay and sick pay.