HSE jobs ‘pause’ leaves 1,000 workers in limbo

AS MANY as 1,000 people offered jobs in key areas of the health service, including child protection, remain without a start date because of a “pause” in recruitment which the HSE has confirmed will last to the end of the year.

This includes workers supposedly exempted from the HSE’s hiring freeze including therapy grades, social workers and hospital consultants. These workers are being brought through the HSE’s recruitment process up to appointment stage, but are not given a start date or an employment contract.

The “pause” has been in force for over three months, during which time IMPACT, the trade union representing many of the workers, has repeatedly asked the Government to clarify its position on these supposedly protected posts.