Redundant HSE staff may get two extra weeks’ pay

THE rushed nature of the HSE’s redundancy packages means that thousands of staff will have to be paid two weeks’ extra salary on top of their redundancy payments.

HSE management have told HSE employees who have applied for redundancy that they won’t find out if they are leaving their job until December 17, two weeks before departure.

However, due to this late date, management won’t be able to give many staff their legal notice requirement of a month and so will have to pay staff extra salary as payment in lieu of notice. All staff must leave at the end of December.

Aimed at staff in management, administration and clerical positions, the HSE voluntary and early redundancy schemes were announced last month. Health Minister Mary Harney said she hoped 5,000 workers would avail of them.

In a letter to Ms Harney, the public sector union IMPACT has warned that the December 17 deadline “leaves just 13 days, inclusive of weekends and Christmas Day, to reconfigure the services and undertake any retraining required by people expected to take up new roles”.

Up to 2,666 staff who have applied for the scheme have failed to receive details of their entitlements, according to IMPACT.

In a letter to Ms Harney, IMPACT has warned that the redundancy scheme is “rushed” and devoid of a “coherent plan to address the service gaps which could arise from large-scale staff reductions, especially if these were concentrated in certain areas”.

Union officials told the minister the rushed nature of the project meant that service gaps “could arise from large-scale staff reductions, particularly if these were concentrated in certain areas”.

National secretary for Health, Louise O’Donnell, said: “This is not the first time that, despite political and health service management commitments and public statements, staff and service users find themselves in a position where unattainable deadlines have been imposed for major projects, followed by an inevitable rush to meet deadlines.

A spokeswoman for the HSE was unavailable for comment.