Payment ‘typifies double standards’ in society

THE Irish Nurses Organisation said the €70,000 bonus awarded to the chief executive of the HSE typifies the “blatant double standards” which are now the norm in society.

INO general secretary Liam Doran said the decision to give Brendan Drumm the money would only confirm and consolidate public service unions’ ongoing campaign to fight any further cuts to the pay and conditions of frontline staff in the health service and indeed throughout the public service.

“This is the most recent example of the blatant double standards which are now the norm in Irish society. This practice sees senior management protect their interests while imposing savage and damaging cuts on their staff.

“The INO will now be insisting that the HSE adopt the same approach to our members as it has to its chief executive and withdraw the threat of further cuts to existing pay and conditions of employment. The HSE has now laid down a marker which they must consistently apply to all their staff or face the consequences.”

Fellow public service union IMPACT pointed out that the bonus was for Mr Drumm’s work in 2007, the same year that the HSE introduced an embargo on recruitment.

“At the time the HSE said this was in response to a financial overrun,” a spokesman said. “The effects on health service provision were far-reaching at the time.

“The embargo was a blunt instrument with which the HSE caused considerable hardship to service users and staff. The Labour Court found, subsequently, that the HSE had acted in breach of several provisions of different agreements in relation to the embargo.”

The spokesman said his union found it inappropriate that this kind of approach to health service delivery should be rewarded with a bonus worth around 20% of what it said was a very generous salary.

“That the bonus should be awarded at a time when resources are supposed to be scarce, and in a year when employees of the HSE had their pay cut by 7.5% by the so-called ‘pension levy’, only adds to the sense of injustice that IMPACT members felt when news of Professor Drumm’s bonus was revealed,” he added.