Unions plan for ballot to strike over staff cuts by HSE West

TRADE unions representing staff in the HSE West have demanded management agree to attend the Labour Relations Commission to discuss plans to get rid of up to 1,000 positions in the region.

SIPTU’s health organiser Paul Bell said he had written to the HSE’s human resources director Sean McGrath demanding a copy of a report by consultants Mott MacDonald on cost reduction strategies in the west.

He said he had also demanded details of what cutbacks management were proposing in all of the regions as he did not expect the purge to be contained to the west. Mr Bell’s union has already started planning for a ballot for strike action in the event that the scale of job losses rumoured transpires.