Taxpayer to foot €120k HSE staff disturbance fee
The Labour Court has ruled that workers at the Heatherside Hospital in Buttevant are entitled to the disturbance fee in order to cover their extra travel costs.
Under HSE plans, the north Cork positions will be moved to Heather House on the St Mary’s Orthopaedic campus in Gurranabraher in Cork city.
This is a distance of 52 kilometres — just seven more than what is allowed under the Croke Park agreement negotiated by unions and the previous government early last year.
As the new work location falls outside the scope of the deal, the 60 workers involved took the HSE to the Labour Court seeking compensation.
And despite the health authority’s protestations, they succeeded, with each person receiving a once-off €2,000 lump sum to cover travel costs and other expenses, and a further two days’ holidays each over the next two years on condition they move to the new location from next week.
The HSE, which has been seeking the move for two years, had offered an alternative which would have been “cost-neutral” for the taxpayer.
This would have involved a daily bus service to the new work location from north Cork and the provision of an extra day’s holiday for each employee affected.
However, the 60 north Cork workers rejected this offer, arguing that the 12-hour roster shift they had been asked to sign up to and the three-hour travel time from their homes to Cork city and back every day meant they would have been effectively working a 15-hour day.
While HSE officials have accepted the Labour Court’s decision, they are understood to be angry at the extra expense of the move.
The issue has been highlighted as the travel difference between Buttevant and Gurranabraher is just seven kilometres outside the scope of the Cork Park agreement changed work location plans.
If the distance was within this geographical spread the HSE would have been under no obligation to provide the lump-sum payment.
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