HSE staff end action after court intervenes

THE dispute between the HSE and its employees which threatened to escalate into staff suspensions and service cuts has ended after the union accepted a Labour Court recommendation.

HSE management was considering its response last night, but is expected to recommend the green light this morning.

For the last three months members of the IMPACT trade union have been refusing to collate and present financial and service data to management, leaving the HSE bosses in the dark as to whether their financial spending was in order and whether they were on target to make the required €400m savings this year.

The union was protesting because it claimed guarantees of job security given in 2004 would be diluted by the Croke Park agreement on public sector pay and reform.

However, management would not give those assurances saying they would be dealt with by clarifications of the Croke Park deal currently being sought. It had threatened suspensions and service cuts from this week if the staff did not return to work.

The Labour Court intervened and held an emergency hearing yesterday. Within hours it had issued a detailed recommendation in which it said the staff affected under the 2004 deal should continue to have jobs for life unless an agreement to alter the terms was agreed by the two sides. It conceded some of the terms of the 2004 deal may have to be adapted to be compatible with the Croke Park agreement if it is ratified.

The union, in accepting the recommendation, said it would call off the industrial action relating to the financial and service data as long as the HSE also backed it.

Meanwhile, the Croke Park deal itself has been given a double boost.

The Public Service Executive yesterday became the first of the public sector unions to complete a ballot of its members and recorded a vote in favour by a margin of two to one.

The prospect of at least two teacher unions also backing the deal was boosted by a department clarification that a review of contracts will focus on delivery of the full school year of 183 days at primary level and 167 days at second level.

While it may mean some teacher training programmes and school planning meetings being moved outside school hours, the clearer picture of department demands should ease concerns among teachers who feared an open-ended review that might lead to reduced holidays or increased duties.

This will strengthen expectations of the deal being approved by a majority of Irish National Teachers’ Organisation’s 31,500 members, whose executive is recommending acceptance.

It could also give those of the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland’s 18,300 members who favour the deal greater hope of it being passed, despite the union’s leadership and executive pushing for rejection.

However, the absence of clarification on the focus of a teachers’ contract review at third level means the Teachers’ Union of Ireland executive is unlikely to change its opposition stance when it meets tomorrow.